Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Grows Stock Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 67.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 47,274 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 19,000 shares during the quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $5,446,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CCI. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Crown Castle by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,078,861 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,203,648,000 after purchasing an additional 1,064,382 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 14.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,936,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,098,526,000 after buying an additional 1,496,330 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 21.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,134,538 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $932,682,000 after buying an additional 1,818,910 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 1.3% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,046,249 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,208,030,000 after buying an additional 118,306 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 42.8% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,083,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $651,910,000 after acquiring an additional 2,121,603 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $94.37 on Friday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.72 and a 12-month high of $134.09. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $105.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.01 billion, a PE ratio of 27.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46.

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 for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). The company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 21.47% and a return on equity of 21.95%. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.91 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently 180.92%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on CCI shares. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $119.40.

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.