First County Bank CT Reduces Stock Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

First County Bank CT lowered its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 46.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,661 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,348 shares during the period. First County Bank CT’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $316,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 24.7% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 157,895 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $17,476,000 after purchasing an additional 31,319 shares during the period. BOKF NA increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 25.6% in the first 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 during the period. Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 3,111.6% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 13,328 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,581,000 after purchasing an additional 12,913 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 7.9% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,059,300 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $125,665,000 after purchasing an additional 77,135 shares during the period. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 23.8% in the second quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 91,118 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,902,000 after purchasing an additional 17,529 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CCI shares. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. 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 research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group increased their target price on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.87.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI opened at $105.42 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $110.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $106.75. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $92.48 and a 52 week high of $120.92. The stock has a market cap of $45.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.38 and a beta of 0.86.

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

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.94%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently 221.99%.

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.