Ancora Advisors LLC Has $1.26 Million Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Ancora Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 9.0% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 11,885 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 980 shares during the quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,258,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CCI. BROOKFIELD Corp ON grew its stake in Crown Castle by 5.8% in the first quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 1,529,519 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $161,869,000 after acquiring an additional 83,923 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC grew its stake in Crown Castle by 19.4% in the first quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,317 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $245,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC grew its stake in Crown Castle by 11.2% in the first quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 4,365 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $462,000 after acquiring an additional 441 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Crown Castle by 5.7% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,783,020 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $188,698,000 after acquiring an additional 95,711 shares during the period. Finally, BOKF NA boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 25.6% during the first quarter. BOKF NA now owns 4,004 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $417,000 after buying an additional 815 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CCI shares. Argus cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Crown Castle in a research report on Monday, July 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $104.00 price objective for the company. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on Crown Castle from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $114.88.

Crown Castle Price Performance

NYSE:CCI opened at $110.08 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $100.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $102.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.40 and a beta of 0.83. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.72 and a 12-month high of $119.50.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.05 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.69%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 195.63%.

Insider Transactions at Crown Castle

In other news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total transaction of $1,128,784.76. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 75,127 shares in the company, valued at $7,792,172.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.