Kathmere Capital Management LLC Makes New $431,000 Investment in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Kathmere Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,139 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock, valued at approximately $431,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $5,672,451,000 after purchasing an additional 5,934,615 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Crown Castle by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,892,332,000 after buying an additional 3,321,249 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,333,158 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,119,225,000 after buying an additional 228,007 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at $561,714,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in Crown Castle by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,144,359 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $557,662,000 after acquiring an additional 58,903 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on CCI shares. Wolfe Research raised Crown Castle from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. JMP Securities raised their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $108.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, New Street Research raised shares of Crown Castle from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $113.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total transaction of $384,192.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 6,465 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $689,944.80. This trade represents a 35.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was 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 directly owned 110,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,762,542.98. This represents a 15.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752. 0.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of CCI stock traded up $0.45 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $103.21. The company had a trading volume of 2,649,777 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,222,684. The company has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $84.20 and a 12 month high of $120.92. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $101.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $97.38.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a negative net margin of 78.12% and a negative return on equity of 164.40%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th were given a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. Crown Castle's payout ratio is currently -39.50%.

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.