Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Purchased by Blue Trust Inc.

Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 131.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,731 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,551 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $324,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Crown Castle by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,609,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,990,991,000 after purchasing an additional 673,243 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Crown Castle by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,177,250 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $603,518,000 after purchasing an additional 67,072 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in Crown Castle by 10.7% in the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,035,561 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $387,333,000 after purchasing an additional 391,127 shares during the last quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd raised its stake in Crown Castle by 19.4% in the 1st quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd now owns 2,632,855 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $278,635,000 after purchasing an additional 428,597 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 95.8% during the 2nd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,578,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $251,962,000 after acquiring an additional 1,261,536 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Citigroup set a $128.00 price objective on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $116.47.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.8 %

NYSE CCI opened at $110.68 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $48.09 billion, a PE ratio of 34.59 and a beta of 0.85. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $86.49 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $114.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The firm’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.66%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.