ProShare Advisors LLC Sells 6,494 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

ProShare Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 5.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 115,908 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 6,494 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $7,725,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Crown Castle in the second quarter valued at about $3,326,154,000. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 0.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,023,394 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,743,562,000 after acquiring an additional 211,633 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 15.7% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 13,463,182 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,094,691,000 after acquiring an additional 1,828,065 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 2.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,325,747 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $514,320,000 after acquiring an additional 144,538 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the second quarter valued at about $456,897,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on CCI. Citizens Jmp lowered their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $125.00 to $120.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $88.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Crown Castle to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 19th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Crown Castle from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Monday, October 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $94.27.

Crown Castle Stock Up 6.5%

Crown Castle stock opened at $92.20 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $76.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $82.26. The company has a market capitalization of $39.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.32 and a 52 week high of $95.07.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.69 by ($0.02). Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 42.11% and a net margin of 20.12%. The business had revenue of $995.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.12 EPS. Crown Castle’s quarterly revenue was down 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 4.40 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Robert Collins sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.89, for a total transaction of $113,835.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 5,113 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $388,025.57. This trade represents a 22.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Crown Castle Company Profile

Crown Castle Inc (NYSE: CCI) is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and leases communications infrastructure in the United States. Its assets support wireless carriers, broadcasters, government agencies and other communications providers by enabling the transmission of voice, data and video services.

The company’s infrastructure has historically included approximately 40,000 cell towers, about 90,000 route miles of fiber and a large portfolio of small-cell installations.