Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Acquired by Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 83.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 384,805 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after acquiring an additional 175,086 shares during the period. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. owned 0.09% of Crown Castle worth $45,649,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 594.6% during the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 15,699 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,661,000 after purchasing an additional 13,439 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 1st quarter worth about $125,000. BTC Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 1st quarter worth about $261,000. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 36,026 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $3,812,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Finally, &PARTNERS increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 73.6% during the 1st quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 4,981 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $527,000 after purchasing an additional 2,112 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CCI. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup set a $128.00 target price on Crown Castle in a research report on Thursday. Barclays lifted their target price on Crown Castle from $112.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $116.47.

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 stock was sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total value of $1,128,784.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,792,172.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of CCI traded up $0.63 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $112.38. The company had a trading volume of 2,336,240 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,637,112. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $114.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.12 and a beta of 0.85. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $84.72 and a 1 year high of $120.92.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The business had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 19.20%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.