Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report published on Saturday morning.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on CCI. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $98.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $96.00 to $94.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $101.00 to $91.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Weiss Ratings raised Crown Castle from a “sell (d)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $100.13.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI opened at $87.44 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $38.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 86.57, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.96. Crown Castle has a twelve month low of $77.01 and a twelve month high of $115.76. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $87.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $90.86.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 420.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. World Investment Advisors grew its position in Crown Castle by 257.7% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 7,729 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $687,000 after purchasing an additional 5,568 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,585,857 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $140,950,000 after buying an additional 164,986 shares during the last quarter. Bayban bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. SHP Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth about $210,000. Finally, Reflection Asset Management bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by 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.