Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Upgraded to Hold at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on CCI. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $101.00 to $91.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $98.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on Crown Castle in a research note on Thursday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $102.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on Crown Castle from $112.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Crown Castle from $90.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $100.13.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $90.07 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $87.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $91.53. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $77.01 and a 12 month high of $115.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.18, a PEG ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 0.96.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is presently 420.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.49, for a total transaction of $262,470.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 5,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $507,442. This trade represents a 34.09% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 4,650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.34, for a total value of $401,481.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 25,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,174,300.22. This represents a 15.59% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CCI. Winnow Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Crown Castle in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. NewSquare Capital LLC grew its stake in Crown Castle by 74.5% in the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 281 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in Crown Castle during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the third quarter worth about $29,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Crown Castle Company 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.