Townsend & Associates Inc Takes $217,000 Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Townsend & Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 2,055 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 51.1% in the fourth quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 287 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 126.1% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 312 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Operose Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its position in Crown Castle by 43.6% in the 4th quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 372 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Finally, HHM Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 154.8% during the 3rd quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 395 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on CCI. Barclays raised their target price on Crown Castle from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Crown Castle from $109.00 to $100.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Argus cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $112.64.

Crown Castle Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE CCI traded up $2.68 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $99.99. 1,330,343 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,884,127. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $84.72 and a 1 year high of $119.60. The stock has a market cap of $43.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $101.99 and a 200 day moving average of $105.63.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). The business 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.91 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

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

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.