Valeo Financial Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Valeo Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 78.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,373 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after acquiring an additional 8,516 shares during the quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC's holdings in Crown Castle were worth $2,019,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 3,532 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $368,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 36.6% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 62.1% in the first 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 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 acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on CCI shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on Crown Castle from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday. Argus raised shares of Crown Castle to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. 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. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Crown Castle from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $113.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In other Crown Castle news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owned 6,465 shares in the company, valued at $689,944.80. This represents a 35.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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 shares were 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 owned 110,571 shares in the company, valued at $11,762,542.98. This represents a 15.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In 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 Stock Up 0.8%

Crown Castle stock traded up $0.85 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $103.43. 1,951,921 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,931,233. Crown Castle Inc. has a twelve month low of $84.20 and a twelve month high of $120.92. The company has a market cap of $45.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a fifty day moving average of $101.47 and a 200-day moving average of $97.08.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.62). Crown Castle had a negative net margin of 78.12% and a negative return on equity of 164.40%. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.72 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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 was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.11%. 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.