Saudi Central Bank Grows Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Key Points

• Saudi Central Bank increased its Crown Castle stake by 89.9% in the second quarter, bringing its holdings to 30,525 shares valued at approximately $2.3 million. Institutional investors collectively own 90.77% of the REIT’s stock.
• Analysts maintain a generally positive outlook, with a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $95.13, despite several recent target-price cuts and downgrades.
• Crown Castle reported weaker quarterly earnings, with EPS of $0.22 versus the $0.39 consensus estimate and revenue down 4.9% year over year. The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.0625, equal to a 5.6% annualized yield.

Saudi Central Bank lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 89.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 30,525 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 14,451 shares during the period. Saudi Central Bank's holdings in Crown Castle were worth $2,312,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in CCI. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 2nd quarter worth $3,326,154,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $594,670,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 124.2% during the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,635,117 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,034,013,000 after purchasing an additional 6,445,237 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Crown Castle during the second quarter worth about $456,897,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in Crown Castle during the second quarter worth about $429,341,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Crown Castle from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Friday, June 26th. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $95.00 target price on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $94.00 to $92.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $95.13.

Insider Transactions at Crown Castle

In related news, VP Robert Collins sold 1,500 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.89, for a total value of $113,835.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 5,113 shares in the company, valued at $388,025.57. The trade was a 22.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Crown Castle Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE:CCI opened at $75.75 on Tuesday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.72 and a 12-month high of $100.50. The firm has a market cap of $32.23 billion, a PE ratio of 38.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $76.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $83.33.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.17). The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $995.05 million. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.71% and a negative return on equity of 51.60%. Crown Castle's revenue for the quarter was down 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.67 EPS. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.530-4.650 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 4.39 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be issued a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.6%. Crown Castle's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 215.74%.

Crown Castle Profile

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company's assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.

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