Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Purchased by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 13,717.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 480,030 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 476,556 shares during the quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.11% of Crown Castle worth $43,568,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Twin Tree Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 400 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Marshall Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, Bank of Jackson Hole Trust purchased a new stake in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Wolfe Research raised Crown Castle from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities increased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Crown Castle in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $110.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In related news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total value of $850,960.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,183,563.36. This trade represents a 28.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total transaction of $2,127,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 110,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,762,542.98. This represents a 15.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Crown Castle Price Performance

CCI stock opened at $105.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $45.72 billion, a PE ratio of 37.23 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $101.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $97.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $84.20 and a 52-week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.62). Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.96%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently -58.18%.

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.