Crown Castle Inc. $CCI Stake Lowered by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company cut its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 3.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,448,398 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 161,921 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned approximately 1.02% of Crown Castle worth $361,699,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Crown Castle by 0.6% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 386,733 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 11.0% during 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. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 2.4% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,986,852 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,243,012,000 after buying an additional 380,419 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 15.7% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 13,463,182 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,094,691,000 after buying an additional 1,828,065 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI stock opened at $74.16 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.63. Crown Castle Inc. has a twelve month low of $73.52 and a twelve month high of $112.75. The company has a market capitalization of $32.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.64, a PEG ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.95.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.7%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 215.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CCI shares. Citizens Jmp dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $125.00 to $120.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. 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 note on Thursday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.92.

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.