Strs Ohio Trims Stock Position in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Strs Ohio decreased its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 3.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 292,875 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 9,795 shares during the quarter. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $28,260,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 0.9% in the second quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 10,274 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,055,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the period. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 47.8% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 303 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 2,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $210,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 24.0% during the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 599 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC grew its position in Crown Castle by 74.5% during the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 281 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on CCI shares. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $112.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 12th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Crown Castle from $127.00 to $116.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $117.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $105.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their target price on Crown Castle from $114.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $107.63.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $86.58 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.70 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.14, a PEG ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $88.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $95.25. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $83.21 and a 12 month high of $115.76.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.08. Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 619.62% and a negative net margin of 95.37%.The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.84 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.9%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently -39.98%.

Crown Castle Profile

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company’s assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.