UniSuper Management Pty Ltd Boosts Position in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 1.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 518,071 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,179 shares during the quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $49,989,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Country Club Bank grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 20.1% during the 3rd quarter. Country Club Bank now owns 70,778 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,808,000 after purchasing an additional 11,851 shares in the last quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the third quarter worth $2,578,000. AlphaCore Capital LLC increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 213.8% in the 2nd quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 11,152 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,146,000 after buying an additional 7,598 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 3,051.5% in the 2nd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,472,810 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $562,221,000 after buying an additional 5,299,155 shares during the period. Finally, ARS Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 22.7% in the 3rd quarter. ARS Investment Partners LLC now owns 95,685 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,233,000 after buying an additional 17,690 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on CCI shares. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $116.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Crown Castle from $114.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. New Street Research cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $93.00 target price for the company. in a report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $107.63.

Crown Castle Price Performance

NYSE CCI opened at $86.58 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $37.70 billion, a PE ratio of -8.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $88.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $95.25. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $83.21 and a one year high of $115.76.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its 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 company had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders 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 yield of 4.9%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently -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.