Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Issues Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $1.03 EPS

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03), Zacks reports. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 19.20%. The company's quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. Crown Castle updated its FY24 guidance to $6.97 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 6.910-7.020 EPS.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CCI traded down $3.93 during trading on Thursday, hitting $111.75. 3,863,005 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,638,607. Crown Castle has a 52-week low of $84.72 and a 52-week high of $120.92. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $113.98 and a 200 day moving average of $105.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 0.43 and a quick ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $48.56 billion, a PE ratio of 40.93 and a beta of 0.85.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.60%. Crown Castle's payout ratio is 229.30%.

Insider Activity at Crown Castle

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on CCI shares. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $112.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $116.00.

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.