Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Analysts

Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Hold" by the sixteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $115.40.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on CCI shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $126.00 price objective (up from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Friday, June 14th.

Insider Activity at Crown Castle

In related news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total value of $1,128,784.76. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares in the company, valued at $7,792,172.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 3,869 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $376,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the period. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 4.4% during the second quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 2,262 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $221,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 19,439 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,899,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 12.8% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 950 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $101,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HM Payson & Co. increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 5.3% in the first quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 2,259 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $239,000 after acquiring an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company's stock.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI traded down $2.81 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $111.48. The company had a trading volume of 3,314,710 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,569,105. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $84.72 and a 12 month high of $120.92. The firm has a market cap of $48.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.84 and a beta of 0.85. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $113.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $104.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 0.43 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.62 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.05 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.62%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle's payout ratio is 195.63%.

About Crown Castle

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.