Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC Grows Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 7.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 6,291 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 425 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $725,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. United Services Automobile Association lifted its position in Crown Castle by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 13,411 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,234,000 after acquiring an additional 2,516 shares during the period. Court Place Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the 4th quarter valued at $201,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Crown Castle by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 117,914 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,852,000 after buying an additional 542 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 8,611.0% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 703,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $81,006,000 after acquiring an additional 695,163 shares during the period. Finally, Manning & Napier Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,005,000. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of CCI opened at $95.08 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $104.62 and its 200-day moving average is $105.37. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $84.72 and a one year high of $128.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.73.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). The business had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.91 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 195.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on CCI. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Bank of America lowered their price target on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Argus lowered Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.57.

Crown Castle Company 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.