Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors acquired 5,622 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 114% compared to the average volume of 2,632 call options.

Crown Castle Trading Up 8.5 %

Shares of CCI opened at $103.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. Crown Castle has a fifty-two week low of $84.20 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.85 billion, a PE ratio of 36.59 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s fifty day moving average is $91.00 and its 200 day moving average is $101.49.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.07%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 221.99%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. JMP Securities assumed coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $102.00 to $99.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $127.00 to $84.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Raymond James raised shares of Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $128.00 to $122.00 in a report on Friday. Finally, Citizens Jmp raised shares of Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Crown Castle presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.12.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Crown Castle by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,672,451,000 after acquiring an additional 5,934,615 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Crown Castle by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,476,470,000 after acquiring an additional 747,390 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Crown Castle by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,892,332,000 after acquiring an additional 3,321,249 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,333,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,119,225,000 after acquiring an additional 228,007 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at $561,714,000. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.