Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Receives Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) have been given a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" by the twenty analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have given a buy recommendation and three have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $112.71.

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Crown Castle from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $128.00 to $122.00 in a report on Friday, March 14th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Crown Castle from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group raised shares of Crown Castle from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $118.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, New Street Research raised shares of Crown Castle from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CCI opened at $101.78 on Tuesday. The company's fifty day moving average price is $101.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $97.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.46, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle has a one year low of $84.20 and a one year high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.62). The company had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 164.40% and a negative net margin of 78.12%. Crown Castle's quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Crown Castle will post 6.67 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were given a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.18%. Crown Castle's dividend payout ratio is -39.50%.

Insider Transactions at Crown Castle

In related news, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total transaction of $2,127,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,571 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,762,542.98. This trade represents a 15.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total transaction of $384,192.00. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 6,465 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $689,944.80. This trade represents a 35.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Crown Castle by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,840,605 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $7,175,256,000 after acquiring an additional 6,341,150 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth about $561,714,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 18.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,892,332,000 after buying an additional 3,321,249 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Crown Castle in the first quarter worth about $305,876,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 60.9% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,472,921 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $570,443,000 after buying an additional 2,072,198 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.