Ridgewood Investments LLC Purchases New Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 578 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $56,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,609,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,990,991,000 after purchasing an additional 673,243 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its stake in Crown Castle by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 11,375,567 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,310,559,000 after buying an additional 834,198 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Crown Castle by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,260,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,297,147,000 after acquiring an additional 1,126,394 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Crown Castle by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,478,477 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $625,975,000 after acquiring an additional 122,948 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth $581,503,000. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI traded down $1.80 on Thursday, hitting $111.69. 1,818,034 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,657,572. Crown Castle Inc. has a twelve month low of $84.72 and a twelve month high of $119.50. The firm has a market cap of $48.54 billion, a PE ratio of 34.90 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $105.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $103.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.62 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.05 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.60%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 195.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CCI. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Bank of America increased their target price on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $126.00 price target (up previously from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Friday, June 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.53.

Crown Castle Profile

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.