Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. Decreases Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Key Points

• Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. reduced its stake in Crown Castle Inc. by 14.7%, selling 54,400 shares and now holding approximately 316,660 shares worth about $33 million.
• Several large investment firms, including Schonfeld Strategic Advisors and AXA S.A., increased their holdings in Crown Castle during the last quarter, with AXA S.A. raising its stake by 89.7%.
• Crown Castle recently reported quarterly earnings with an EPS of $1.02, surpassing estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $1.0625, yielding an annualized value of 4.4%.

Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. cut its holdings in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 14.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 316,660 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 54,400 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. owned approximately 0.07% of Crown Castle worth $33,005,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 10.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,840,605 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $7,175,256,000 after acquiring an additional 6,341,150 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the first quarter valued at about $305,876,000. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in Crown Castle by 60.9% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,472,921 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $570,443,000 after purchasing an additional 2,072,198 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Crown Castle by 144.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,433,109 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $357,834,000 after purchasing an additional 2,028,718 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 107.3% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,730,309 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $284,580,000 after acquiring an additional 1,412,992 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on CCI shares. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $121.00 to $119.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 18th. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Crown Castle from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $115.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and set a $125.00 target price on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $116.41.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI traded down $2.36 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $93.79. 9,019,579 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,291,027. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $103.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $101.43. The stock has a market cap of $40.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.92. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $84.20 and a 1 year high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.02. Crown Castle had a negative net margin of 85.54% and a negative return on equity of 619.62%. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.62 earnings per share. The company's revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Crown Castle has set its FY 2025 guidance at 4.140-4.250 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.5%. Crown Castle's dividend payout ratio is presently -39.83%.

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.