Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Price Target Cut to $116.00 by Analysts at UBS Group

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) had its price target cut by UBS Group from $127.00 to $116.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on CCI. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $124.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $102.00 to $90.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Crown Castle from $114.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $105.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Crown Castle from $112.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $107.11.

Crown Castle Price Performance

NYSE:CCI opened at $86.81 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $37.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.17, a PEG ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.96. Crown Castle has a 1 year low of $83.21 and a 1 year high of $115.76. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $88.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $95.48.

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

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Daniel K. Schlanger sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.08, for a total value of $2,942,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 65,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,431,203.68. This trade represents a 31.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the second quarter worth approximately $629,431,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in Crown Castle by 3,051.5% during the 2nd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,472,810 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $562,221,000 after purchasing an additional 5,299,155 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 591.8% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,471,120 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $431,418,000 after buying an additional 3,824,778 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Crown Castle by 33.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,437,685 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $621,172,000 after buying an additional 1,605,291 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the third quarter valued at $121,726,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.