Oak Harvest Investment Services Buys Shares of 13,000 Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Oak Harvest Investment Services purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 13,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $1,542,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Crown Castle by 1.2% during 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 in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,177,250 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $603,518,000 after buying an additional 67,072 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 10.7% in the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,035,561 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $387,333,000 after buying an additional 391,127 shares in the last quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd grew its stake in Crown Castle by 19.4% in the 1st quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd now owns 2,632,855 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $278,635,000 after acquiring an additional 428,597 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 95.8% during the 2nd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,578,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $251,962,000 after acquiring an additional 1,261,536 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on CCI. BMO Capital Markets increased 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.80.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Crown Castle stock opened at $107.81 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $113.93 and a 200-day moving average of $105.65. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $90.81 and a 52-week high of $120.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.23 and a beta of 0.85.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.81%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently 221.99%.

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.