Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Earns Strong-Buy Rating from Raymond James Financial

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "strong-buy" rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Raymond James Financial in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $124.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust's stock, up from their previous price objective of $122.00. Raymond James Financial's price target would indicate a potential upside of 8.65% from the company's previous close.

Several other research firms also recently commented on CCI. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $125.00 price target on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $113.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, New Street Research upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $115.47.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CCI traded up $4.40 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $114.13. 3,824,278 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,220,650. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $101.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.14. The company has a market cap of $49.70 billion, a PE ratio of -10.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $84.20 and a 12 month high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.02. 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 net margin of 78.12% and a negative return on equity of 164.40%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.62 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Crown Castle will post 6.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total value of $850,960.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 20,528 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,183,563.36. This represents a 28.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total transaction of $384,192.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 6,465 shares in the company, valued at $689,944.80. The trade was a 35.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 10.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 6,341,150 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at $561,714,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Crown Castle by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,892,332,000 after buying an additional 3,321,249 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Crown Castle during the 1st quarter valued at $305,876,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in Crown Castle by 60.9% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,472,921 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $570,443,000 after buying an additional 2,072,198 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company's stock.

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.

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