Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Acquires 9,540 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 7.1% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 144,237 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 9,540 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $13,917,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in Crown Castle by 15.6% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 70,963 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,847,000 after purchasing an additional 9,552 shares during the period. Country Club Bank boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 20.1% in the 3rd quarter. Country Club Bank now owns 70,778 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,808,000 after purchasing an additional 11,851 shares during the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP grew its position in shares of Crown Castle by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,419,034 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $233,413,000 after buying an additional 138,061 shares during the period. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,578,000. Finally, National Pension Service boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 3.5% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 656,795 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $63,374,000 after acquiring an additional 21,986 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on CCI shares. Zacks Research cut shares of Crown Castle from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $101.00 price objective (down previously from $104.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Monday, December 1st. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Crown Castle from $97.00 to $91.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 5th. HSBC lowered their price target on Crown Castle from $107.00 to $88.40 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.61.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI stock opened at $83.10 on Tuesday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.01 and a 52 week high of $115.76. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $87.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $93.49. The company has a market capitalization of $36.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 82.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 0.96.

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.