Ritholtz Wealth Management Acquires New Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 19,331 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $2,015,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of CCI. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $561,714,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Crown Castle by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $5,672,451,000 after purchasing an additional 5,934,615 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 3,321,249 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in Crown Castle by 37.3% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,793,842 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $525,849,000 after purchasing an additional 1,573,043 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $95,167,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $85.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $99.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Crown Castle from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $112.71.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.5%

Crown Castle stock traded up $0.47 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $99.28. 3,549,370 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,916,897. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $101.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $96.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $84.20 and a 52-week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.62). The company had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.28%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Crown Castle's payout ratio is currently -39.50%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In other news, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total value of $2,127,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 110,571 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,762,542.98. This represents a 15.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total transaction of $850,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,528 shares in the company, valued at $2,183,563.36. This represents a 28.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.