7,742 Shares in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Bought by Chicago Capital LLC

Chicago Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 7,742 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $807,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth approximately $561,714,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Crown Castle by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $5,672,451,000 after acquiring an additional 5,934,615 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings 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 worth $1,892,332,000 after acquiring an additional 3,321,249 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 37.3% in the 4th 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. acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the 4th quarter valued at $95,167,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In other news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of the business's 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 now directly owns 6,465 shares in the company, valued at $689,944.80. The trade was a 35.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,528 shares of the company's stock, 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 worth $3,362,752. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on CCI. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Raymond James Financial raised Crown Castle from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $128.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Crown Castle from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $105.00 in a report on Monday, March 17th. Wolfe Research upgraded Crown Castle from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $112.71.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $98.74 on Wednesday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $101.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $96.76. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $84.20 and a 12 month high of $120.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.18, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 0.37 and a quick ratio of 0.37.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last posted 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). Crown Castle had a negative net margin of 78.12% and a negative return on equity of 164.40%. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.30%. Crown Castle's payout ratio is -39.50%.

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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