Crown Castle Inc. $CCI Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. cut its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 772,637 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 31,585 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned approximately 0.18% of Crown Castle worth $51,496,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Crown Castle in the 2nd quarter worth about $3,326,154,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in Crown Castle by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,023,394 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,743,562,000 after buying an additional 211,633 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 15.7% during the 1st 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 buying an additional 1,828,065 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,325,747 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $514,320,000 after buying an additional 144,538 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $456,897,000. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Robert Collins sold 1,500 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.89, for a total value of $113,835.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 5,113 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $388,025.57. The trade was a 22.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CCI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings raised Crown Castle from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Monday, October 26th. Citizens Jmp decreased their price target on Crown Castle from $125.00 to $120.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.27.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

NYSE CCI opened at $92.20 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $39.23 billion, a PE 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. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $76.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.26.

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

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.