J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG Acquires New Stake in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 7,085 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $575,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,769,393 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,200,406,000 after acquiring an additional 386,733 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 39,790,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,536,214,000 after purchasing an additional 3,953,685 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 22,239,559 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,976,430,000 after purchasing an additional 511,018 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,986,852 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,243,012,000 after purchasing an additional 380,419 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Crown Castle by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,027,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,156,972,000 after purchasing an additional 184,533 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on CCI shares. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $102.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $85.00 price target (down from $90.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.52.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI stock opened at $79.41 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $34.66 billion, a PE ratio of 32.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.95. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $73.75 and a one year high of $115.76. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $86.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $86.29.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.55. Crown Castle had a net margin of 25.13% and a negative return on equity of 64.64%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.41 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.10 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.380-4.490 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 4.22 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.4%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is 175.62%.

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.