Analysts Set Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) PT at $116.87

Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fifteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $116.87.

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group raised their target price on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America upped their price target on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Citigroup set a $128.00 price objective on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, October 17th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CCI. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Crown Castle by 23.8% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,528,597 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,079,417,000 after purchasing an additional 3,371,186 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 433.8% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,968,959 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $470,838,000 after purchasing an additional 3,225,460 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 4,097.8% during the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 2,524,226 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $246,617,000 after purchasing an additional 2,464,094 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in Crown Castle by 191.7% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 2,032,521 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $195,183,000 after buying an additional 1,335,644 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 95.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,261,536 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Price Performance

CCI stock opened at $106.69 on Monday. Crown Castle has a 1 year low of $92.48 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.37 billion, a PE ratio of 37.83 and a beta of 0.86. The company’s 50-day moving average is $109.83 and its 200-day moving average is $106.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). The business had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. Crown Castle’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Crown Castle will post 6.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.87%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 221.99%.

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.