Crown Castle Inc. $CCI is Skylands Capital LLC's 6th Largest Position

Key Points

• Skylands Capital LLC increased its Crown Castle stake by 9.4% in the first quarter, bringing its holdings to 286,635 shares. The position is now Skylands’ 6th largest and represents about 3.1% of its portfolio.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed but leaning positive, with Crown Castle holding a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.52. Recent moves included a Raymond James upgrade to “strong-buy,” while Wolfe Research downgraded the stock to “peer perform.”
• Crown Castle reported strong earnings and a large dividend, beating quarterly EPS and revenue estimates, and it announced a $1.0625 per share quarterly dividend. The stock recently traded at $82.58, below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

Skylands Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 9.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 286,635 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after buying an additional 24,585 shares during the period. Crown Castle makes up approximately 3.1% of Skylands Capital LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Skylands Capital LLC owned 0.07% of Crown Castle worth $23,306,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 672,933 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $60,086,000 after acquiring an additional 60,497 shares during the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 21.2% during the fourth quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,930,797 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $260,460,000 after purchasing an additional 511,763 shares during the last quarter. Aberdeen Group plc raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 13.9% during the fourth quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 1,052,667 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $93,551,000 after purchasing an additional 128,212 shares during the last quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd lifted its position in Crown Castle by 30.9% during the third quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 197,804 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $19,027,000 after purchasing an additional 46,693 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Crown Castle by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,506,580 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $489,370,000 after purchasing an additional 54,078 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on CCI. Wolfe Research lowered Crown Castle from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Crown Castle from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Raymond James Financial boosted their price target on Crown Castle from $102.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Zacks Research upgraded Crown Castle from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $84.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $98.52.

Crown Castle Stock Up 3.8%

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $82.58 on Friday. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $88.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.33. The firm has a market cap of $36.04 billion, a PE ratio of 34.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $75.96 and a 52 week high of $115.76.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.55. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $995.41 million. Crown Castle had a net margin of 25.13% and a negative return on equity of 64.64%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.10 earnings per share. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.380-4.490 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.1%. Crown Castle's dividend payout ratio is presently 175.62%.

Crown Castle Profile

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company's assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.