Short Interest in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Increases By 26.7%

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,740,000 shares, a growth of 26.7% from the October 15th total of 5,320,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,270,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Crown Castle by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,105,151 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,434,229,000 after buying an additional 151,990 shares during the period. Valued Retirements Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the third quarter valued at approximately $335,000. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 1,817.4% during the third quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 5,829 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $691,000 after purchasing an additional 5,525 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,174,920 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $613,900,000 after purchasing an additional 348,296 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Crown Castle by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 129,122 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $15,318,000 after purchasing an additional 8,498 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $103.80 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $112.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $106.53. Crown Castle has a 1-year low of $92.48 and a 1-year high of $120.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The company has a market cap of $45.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.81 and a beta of 0.86.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The business had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. Crown Castle’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Crown Castle will post 6.66 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 221.99%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on CCI. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup set a $128.00 price objective on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.87.

About Crown Castle

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.