Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Invests $9.42 Million in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 124,404 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $9,421,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 7.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 16,444 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,714,000 after purchasing an additional 1,150 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 6.9% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 87,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $9,000,000 after purchasing an additional 5,630 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Crown Castle by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,655 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $786,000 after buying an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC grew its position in Crown Castle by 49.3% in the 2nd quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 10,913 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,121,000 after buying an additional 3,603 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in Crown Castle by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 4,955 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $509,000 after buying an additional 261 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CCI has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $91.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on Crown Castle from $94.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial cut their target price on Crown Castle from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In other news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.89, for a total value of $113,835.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 5,113 shares in the company, valued at $388,025.57. This represents a 22.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $76.25 on Tuesday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.72 and a 12-month high of $100.50. The company has a market capitalization of $32.44 billion, a PE ratio of 38.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $76.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $83.81.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.17). Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 51.60% and a net margin of 20.71%.The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.05 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.67 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.530-4.650 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 4.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.6%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 215.74%.

Crown Castle Company Profile

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company’s assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.