Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Purchased by Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 226.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 83,703 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after buying an additional 58,071 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas' holdings in Crown Castle were worth $8,724,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA lifted its position in 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 valued at $368,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. 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 valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 6.1% in the first quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,424 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $253,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the period. Finally, Providence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 22,668 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,057,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. New Street Research upgraded Crown Castle from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $99.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $128.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Crown Castle to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, March 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 assigned 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 1.2%

Shares of NYSE CCI traded down $1.20 during trading on Monday, reaching $101.72. The company had a trading volume of 337,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,246,247. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.30 billion, a PE ratio of -9.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $101.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $96.96. Crown Castle Inc. has a twelve month low of $84.20 and a twelve month high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.62). The business had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 164.40% and a negative net margin of 78.12%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.18%. Crown Castle's payout ratio is currently -39.50%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total transaction of $850,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 20,528 shares in the company, 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 link. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was 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 directly owned 6,465 shares in the company, valued at $689,944.80. This trade represents a 35.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752. Insiders own 0.10% of the company's stock.

Crown Castle Company 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.