Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Increases Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,166,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 642,010 shares during the period. Crown Castle comprises approximately 1.7% of Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. owned approximately 0.73% of Crown Castle worth $375,610,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Crown Castle in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its position in Crown Castle by 159.0% in the second quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 272 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 163.9% in the first quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 107.9% during the third quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CCI. Citigroup set a $128.00 target price on Crown Castle in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.87.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:CCI opened at $105.44 on Friday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $92.48 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $110.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $106.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.39 and a beta of 0.86.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.77 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.94%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 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.