Albion Financial Group UT Has $4.70 Million Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Albion Financial Group UT lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 2.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 44,420 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 1,034 shares during the period. Albion Financial Group UT’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $4,701,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,547,032 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $523,773,000 after acquiring an additional 632,398 shares in the last quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $201,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the first quarter worth about $4,425,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 8,611.0% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 703,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $81,006,000 after acquiring an additional 695,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 20.1% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 58,210 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,705,000 after acquiring an additional 9,762 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on CCI. Argus lowered Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $126.00 price objective (up previously from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.53.

Crown Castle Price Performance

NYSE:CCI traded up $1.37 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $96.66. 1,085,391 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,840,764. The company has a market capitalization of $42.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.83. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1-year low of $84.72 and a 1-year high of $119.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.42. The business has a 50 day moving average of $98.43 and a 200 day moving average of $104.33.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). The company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.91 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.48%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 195.63%.

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.