Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $107.6250.

CCI has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $112.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 12th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $116.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. New Street Research downgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $93.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $114.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 14th.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $86.58 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $88.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $95.25. Crown Castle has a 52-week low of $83.21 and a 52-week high of $115.76. The company has a market cap of $37.70 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 0.96.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. Crown Castle had a negative net margin of 95.37% and a negative return on equity of 619.62%. The business’s revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.84 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 6.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th were given a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.9%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is -39.98%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its position in Crown Castle by 0.9% during the second quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 10,274 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,055,000 after buying an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 47.8% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 303 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. increased its stake in Crown Castle by 5.6% during the second quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 2,046 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $210,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 24.0% in the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 599 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC grew its holdings in Crown Castle by 74.5% during the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 281 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Company Profile

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company’s assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.