Oak Thistle LLC Makes New Investment in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 13,566 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $1,231,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Crown Castle by 29.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,243,722 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $113,465,000 after buying an additional 282,821 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 24.7% during 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. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 4.2% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,088,017 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $603,592,000 after purchasing an additional 203,442 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Business Bank purchased a new position in Crown Castle during the 3rd quarter valued at about $620,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Crown Castle by 3.7% during the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 747,390 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CCI opened at $86.65 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $37.66 billion, a PE ratio of 30.73 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $97.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $105.81. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1-year low of $84.20 and a 1-year high of $120.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54.

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

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 221.99%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted 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. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $127.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Barclays raised Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $117.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.00.

Crown Castle 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.