Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Position Raised by Pitcairn Co.

Pitcairn Co. lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 12.2% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,133 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 341 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $332,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ables Iannone Moore & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Rational Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Crown Castle by 164.0% during the 4th quarter. Gables Capital Management Inc. now owns 264 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares in the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Finally, YHB Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the first quarter worth $32,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of Crown Castle stock traded up $0.06 on Thursday, hitting $105.53. 2,458,409 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,783,617. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.72 and a 12-month high of $119.50. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $99.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $102.92. The company has a market cap of $45.85 billion, a PE ratio of 33.29, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.83.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.05 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is presently 195.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on CCI. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America lifted their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Argus cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $114.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In other news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total transaction of $1,128,784.76. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 75,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,792,172.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market. This nationwide portfolio of communications infrastructure connects cities and communities to essential data, technology and wireless service – bringing information, ideas and innovations to the people and businesses that need them.