Investors Research Corp Has $1.55 Million Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Investors Research Corp lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 3,406.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,833 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after acquiring an additional 14,410 shares during the quarter. Investors Research Corp's holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,546,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Twin Tree Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 95.2% during the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 408 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on CCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Wolfe Research raised Crown Castle from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Crown Castle from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Crown Castle from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $112.71.

Crown Castle Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of CCI stock traded down $0.45 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $99.91. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,935,581 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,884,928. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $101.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $97.20. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $84.20 and a 52 week high of $120.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. The company has a market cap of $43.50 billion, a PE ratio of 35.43 and a beta of 0.93.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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 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 the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect 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 given a $1.0625 dividend. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Crown Castle's payout ratio is -39.50%.

Insider Activity at Crown Castle

In other Crown Castle news, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total transaction of $2,127,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 110,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,762,542.98. The trade was a 15.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total value of $384,192.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,465 shares of the company's stock, valued at $689,944.80. This trade represents a 35.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

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.