Crown Castle Inc. $CCI Shares Acquired by Ethic Inc.

Key Points

• Ethic Inc. has increased its stake in Crown Castle Inc. by 9.1%, bringing its total holdings to 50,614 shares valued at approximately $5.3 million.
• Major analysts have boosted their ratings and price targets for Crown Castle, with Barclays raising its target from $117 to $121 and New Street Research upgrading the stock to a "strong-buy" rating.
• Crown Castle has declared a quarterly dividend of $1.0625 per share with a yield of 4.2%, to be paid on September 30th.

Ethic Inc. increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 9.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 50,614 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 4,226 shares during the quarter. Ethic Inc.'s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $5,295,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 10.1% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Crown Castle in the first quarter worth $305,876,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position 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 worth $570,443,000 after purchasing an additional 2,072,198 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 107.3% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,730,309 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $284,580,000 after purchasing an additional 1,412,992 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 575.0% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 1,285,972 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $134,037,000 after purchasing an additional 1,095,455 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on CCI. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Crown Castle from $112.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Monday, May 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating and set a $124.00 price objective (up from $122.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Three investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $116.41.

Crown Castle Price Performance

CCI stock traded down $0.3840 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $102.4760. 577,321 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,226,339. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1-year low of $84.20 and a 1-year high of $120.92. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $103.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.45. The firm has a market cap of $44.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.60, a PEG ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 0.89.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.62 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter 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, research analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.1%. Crown Castle's dividend payout ratio is currently -39.83%.

Crown Castle 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.