Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Stake Cut by Optimum Investment Advisors

Optimum Investment Advisors cut its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 15.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,435 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 975 shares during the period. Optimum Investment Advisors’ holdings in Crown Castle were worth $645,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BOKF NA grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 25.6% during the 1st quarter. BOKF NA now owns 4,004 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 815 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 0.9% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 931,397 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $98,570,000 after acquiring an additional 8,136 shares during the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the first quarter worth $4,425,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 30.4% during the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 35,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,789,000 after purchasing an additional 8,346 shares during the period. Finally, Norden Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the first quarter worth $1,804,000. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total transaction of $1,128,784.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,792,172.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of NYSE:CCI opened at $111.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.56 billion, a PE ratio of 40.93 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $114.00 and a 200 day moving average of $105.05. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $84.72 and a 52-week high of $120.92.

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 for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). The business had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.60%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 229.30%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on CCI shares. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America upped their target price on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $115.29.

Crown Castle Company Profile

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.