New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 7.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 651,578 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 50,958 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $75,055,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,078,861 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,203,648,000 after purchasing an additional 1,064,382 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,936,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,098,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,496,330 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 21.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,134,538 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $932,682,000 after purchasing an additional 1,818,910 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 42.8% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,083,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $651,910,000 after purchasing an additional 2,121,603 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,568,481 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $512,467,000 after purchasing an additional 155,543 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CCI. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Argus cut shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.29.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $95.47 on Wednesday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $84.72 and a 52-week high of $128.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $104.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.40. The firm has a market cap of $41.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.73.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). The company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.91 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.56%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 195.63%.

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.