Capital Investment Advisors LLC Acquires 3,665 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 5.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,302 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,665 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $8,459,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,609,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,990,991,000 after buying an additional 673,243 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.1% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,177,250 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $603,518,000 after acquiring an additional 67,072 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 10.7% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,035,561 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $387,333,000 after acquiring an additional 391,127 shares during the period. ClearBridge Investments Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 19.4% during the first quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd now owns 2,632,855 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $278,635,000 after purchasing an additional 428,597 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its position in Crown Castle by 95.8% during the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,578,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $251,962,000 after purchasing an additional 1,261,536 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $112.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 0.43 and a quick ratio of 0.43. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $84.72 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $114.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $105.10. The stock has a market cap of $48.87 billion, a PE ratio of 41.19 and a beta of 0.85.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued 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). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. The business had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.77 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.57%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 229.30%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CCI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. 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 research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $112.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Crown Castle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.47.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 75,127 shares in the company, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.