Kovack Advisors Inc. Buys 5,257 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Kovack Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 142.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,945 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,257 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,030,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in CCI. United Services Automobile Association grew its position in Crown Castle by 23.1% in the third quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 13,411 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,234,000 after purchasing an additional 2,516 shares in the last quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at $201,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Crown Castle by 0.5% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 117,914 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,852,000 after purchasing an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Crown Castle by 8,611.0% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 703,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $81,006,000 after purchasing an additional 695,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Group LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at $5,005,000. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Trading Down 0.7 %

CCI traded down $0.63 during trading on Friday, reaching $93.58. 2,697,322 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,940,738. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $84.72 and a one year high of $123.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.66 billion, a PE ratio of 29.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $103.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.25.

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

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.69%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 195.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.29.

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.