Stephens Inc. AR Purchases 7,702 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Stephens Inc. AR grew its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 11.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 75,648 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,702 shares during the quarter. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $8,974,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its stake in Crown Castle by 107.9% during the third quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 4,967 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $589,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,542,000. SteelPeak Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 239.5% in the 3rd quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 10,840 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,286,000 after acquiring an additional 7,647 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 592.9% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 26,810 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,180,000 after acquiring an additional 22,941 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on CCI. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Citigroup set a $128.00 price target on Crown Castle in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.87.

Crown Castle Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $106.58 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $113.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $105.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.79 and a beta of 0.86. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $92.48 and a 52-week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released 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 return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.87%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 221.99%.

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.