Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Price Target Raised to $124.00

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) had its price target raised by UBS Group from $118.00 to $124.00 in a research note published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a buy rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

CCI has been the topic of several other research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Crown Castle from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $105.00 in a report on Monday, March 17th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Argus raised Crown Castle to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $128.00 to $122.00 in a report on Friday, March 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $113.06.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI stock opened at $103.96 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $101.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $97.22. The firm has a market cap of $45.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.66, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle has a 1 year low of $84.20 and a 1 year high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.62). The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 164.40% and a negative net margin of 78.12%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.72 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.67 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were given a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.09%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is -39.50%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total transaction of $384,192.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 6,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $689,944.80. This trade represents a 35.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total transaction of $2,127,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 110,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,762,542.98. The trade was a 15.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,840,605 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,175,256,000 after purchasing an additional 6,341,150 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth approximately $561,714,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,892,332,000 after purchasing an additional 3,321,249 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 1st quarter worth approximately $305,876,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 60.9% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,472,921 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $570,443,000 after purchasing an additional 2,072,198 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.