Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Sold by Ninety One UK Ltd

Ninety One UK Ltd reduced its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 16.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 450,212 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 86,042 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd owned approximately 0.10% of Crown Castle worth $46,926,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 3.0% in the first quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 3,532 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $368,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Beacon Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 36.6% in the 1st quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 448 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its position in Crown Castle by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 37,357 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $3,894,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in Crown Castle by 62.1% in the 1st quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 347 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cidel Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Crown Castle by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,424 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CCI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wolfe Research raised Crown Castle from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Crown Castle from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Barclays lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of Crown Castle from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $128.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Friday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $113.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In other news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total value of $850,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,528 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,183,563.36. This represents a 28.04% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 110,571 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,762,542.98. The trade was a 15.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752. Insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

Crown Castle Price Performance

CCI traded up $0.76 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $102.61. 2,209,795 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,930,567. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $84.20 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.68 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.88. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $101.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $97.04.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.62). The business 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%. Crown Castle's revenue for the quarter 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. Equities analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.14%. Crown Castle's payout ratio is -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.