Barrier Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Barrier Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 18.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,319 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 4,300 shares during the period. Crown Castle makes up approximately 4.3% of Barrier Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Barrier Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $3,656,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at about $642,077,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 90,084.4% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,487,430 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $473,035,000 after purchasing an additional 3,483,563 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 645.2% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 2,188,540 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $296,854,000 after purchasing an additional 1,894,859 shares during the period. FIL Ltd increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 5,762.6% during the 1st quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 1,839,579 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $246,209,000 after purchasing an additional 1,808,201 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 12.4% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,066,495 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,150,340,000 after purchasing an additional 1,776,989 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CCI. Bank of America downgraded Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, August 10th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Crown Castle from C$113.00 to C$106.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $144.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $162.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $137.00 to $116.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $138.56.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI stock opened at $98.53 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.73 billion, a PE ratio of 25.01 and a beta of 0.64. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $97.94 and a 12-month high of $177.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.07. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $106.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $116.41.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.79 by ($0.74). The business had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.86 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 23.85% and a return on equity of 23.20%. The business’s revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.80 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 7.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.35%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 158.88%.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 85,000 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.