B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Trims Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG lessened its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 35.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 43,884 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 24,603 shares during the quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $3,983,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $561,714,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,672,451,000 after acquiring an additional 5,934,615 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 23.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 3,371,186 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth $95,167,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,476,470,000 after purchasing an additional 747,390 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on CCI shares. Raymond James raised shares of Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $128.00 to $122.00 in a report on Friday, March 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $127.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $110.00.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $104.39 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.02 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $94.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.40. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $84.20 and a 12 month high of $120.92. 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 Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.00%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently -69.71%.

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.