Ascent Group LLC Buys New Stake in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Ascent Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,420 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $461,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Crown Castle by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,840,605 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,175,256,000 after purchasing an additional 6,341,150 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $305,876,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in Crown Castle by 60.9% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,472,921 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $570,443,000 after purchasing an additional 2,072,198 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Crown Castle by 144.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,433,109 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $357,834,000 after purchasing an additional 2,028,718 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $149,661,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CCI. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $115.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $112.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $124.00 price objective (up previously from $122.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $116.41.

Crown Castle Price Performance

NYSE:CCI opened at $93.97 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.92 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.81, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.92. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1-year low of $84.20 and a 1-year high of $120.92. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $102.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.35.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a negative net margin of 85.54% and a negative return on equity of 619.62%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.62 earnings per share. Crown Castle has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.140-4.250 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -39.83%.

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.