Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Stock Price Expected to Rise, UBS Group Analyst Says

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) had its target price boosted by investment analysts at UBS Group from $118.00 to $124.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "buy" rating on the real estate investment trust's stock. UBS Group's price objective indicates a potential upside of 21.79% from the stock's current price.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $108.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $128.00 to $122.00 in a report on Friday, March 14th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $99.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. New Street Research upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $113.06.

Crown Castle Trading Down 0.0%

CCI stock traded down $0.04 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $101.81. The company's stock had a trading volume of 202,106 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,922,915. The stock has a market cap of $44.33 billion, a PE ratio of -9.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle has a fifty-two week low of $84.20 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92. The company's 50 day moving average is $101.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $97.04.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the business's 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 110,571 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,762,542.98. The trade was a 15.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total transaction of $384,192.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 6,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $689,944.80. This represents a 35.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 10.1% during the first 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 buying an additional 6,341,150 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $561,714,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 18.9% during the fourth 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 position in shares of Crown Castle during the first quarter valued at approximately $305,876,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 60.9% during the first 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.

About Crown Castle

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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