Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Sold by Focus Partners Wealth

Focus Partners Wealth reduced its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 71.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,730 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 39,489 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth's holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,441,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,174,920 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $613,900,000 after purchasing an additional 348,296 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 19,102 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,734,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 18,769 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,703,000 after buying an additional 2,171 shares in the last quarter. Avanza Fonder AB acquired a new stake in Crown Castle in the 4th quarter worth about $3,083,000. Finally, Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth approximately $388,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In other Crown Castle news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total value of $384,192.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 110,571 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,762,542.98. This trade represents a 15.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752 in the last three months. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on CCI shares. Citizens Jmp raised shares of Crown Castle to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James raised shares of Crown Castle from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $128.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $112.71.

Crown Castle Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of Crown Castle stock traded down $1.48 on Wednesday, reaching $101.44. The company had a trading volume of 3,019,051 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,871,095. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $102.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $97.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $84.20 and a 52-week high of $120.92. The firm has a market cap of $44.17 billion, a PE ratio of 35.97 and a beta of 0.93.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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). Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.19%. Crown Castle's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -58.18%.

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.