Garrison Bradford & Associates Inc. Buys 16,405 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Garrison Bradford & Associates Inc. increased its position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 156.6% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 26,880 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 16,405 shares during the quarter. Crown Castle makes up about 2.2% of Garrison Bradford & Associates Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Garrison Bradford & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $2,036,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CCI. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Crown Castle in the 4th quarter worth $594,670,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 124.2% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,635,117 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,034,013,000 after acquiring an additional 6,445,237 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 11.0% in the 4th 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. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of Crown Castle by 591.8% during the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,471,120 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $431,418,000 after purchasing an additional 3,824,778 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 422.5% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,581,154 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $318,258,000 after buying an additional 2,895,756 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Crown Castle from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Barclays boosted their target price on Crown Castle from $91.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on Crown Castle from $102.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.13.

Crown Castle Stock Up 2.4%

Shares of NYSE:CCI opened at $75.75 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $79.98 and a 200 day moving average of $84.58. The company has a market capitalization of $32.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.95. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $69.72 and a 52 week high of $104.61.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be given a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.6%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is presently 215.74%.

Insider Activity at Crown Castle

In related news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.89, for a total transaction of $113,835.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 5,113 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $388,025.57. This represents a 22.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Crown Castle

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.