Barclays Upgrades Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) to Overweight

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at Barclays from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $104.00 price target on the real estate investment trust's stock, down from their previous price target of $117.00. Barclays's price objective suggests a potential upside of 21.69% from the company's previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Crown Castle from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $105.00 to $100.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Citigroup set a $128.00 target price on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Crown Castle from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $127.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $113.00.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.3 %

NYSE:CCI traded up $1.13 on Monday, reaching $85.46. 4,524,739 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,138,404. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $98.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.89. The company has a market capitalization of $37.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.31 and a beta of 0.87. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $84.20 and a 12 month high of $120.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. Crown Castle's revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 29.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,243,722 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $113,465,000 after purchasing an additional 282,821 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in Crown Castle by 24.7% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 157,895 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $17,476,000 after buying an additional 31,319 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 4.2% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,088,017 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $603,592,000 after acquiring an additional 203,442 shares during the period. Citizens Business Bank purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the third quarter valued at about $620,000. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,476,470,000 after acquiring an additional 747,390 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company's stock.

Crown Castle Company Profile

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 90,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market. This nationwide portfolio of communications infrastructure connects cities and communities to essential data, technology and wireless service - bringing information, ideas and innovations to the people and businesses that need them.