Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Acquired by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,919,891 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after buying an additional 9,129 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 1.36% of Crown Castle worth $537,278,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth approximately $561,714,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $5,672,451,000 after purchasing an additional 5,934,615 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,892,332,000 after buying an additional 3,321,249 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 37.3% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,793,842 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $525,849,000 after buying an additional 1,573,043 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth about $95,167,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on CCI. Citigroup reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Moffett Nathanson lowered their price objective on Crown Castle from $127.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James raised shares of Crown Castle from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $128.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Friday, March 14th. UBS Group raised shares of Crown Castle from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $118.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded Crown Castle from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $120.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $110.47.

Crown Castle Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of CCI traded down $0.76 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $101.52. The company had a trading volume of 1,544,162 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,878,523. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $84.20 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $98.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.98 and a beta of 0.93.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.17%. Crown Castle's dividend payout ratio is currently -69.71%.

Crown Castle 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.