Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Receives Market Outperform Rating from JMP Securities

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "market outperform" rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at JMP Securities in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $125.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust's stock. JMP Securities' target price would suggest a potential upside of 12.01% from the stock's previous close.

CCI has been the subject of several other research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $113.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. New Street Research raised shares of Crown Castle from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $108.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Monday, May 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $115.94.

Crown Castle Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of Crown Castle stock traded down $2.31 during trading on Thursday, reaching $111.60. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,419,991 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,744,282. The business's 50-day moving average price is $102.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $98.48. The firm has a market cap of $48.60 billion, a PE ratio of -10.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle has a 52 week low of $84.20 and a 52 week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.02. Crown Castle had a negative net margin of 85.54% and a negative return on equity of 619.62%. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.62 earnings per share. Crown Castle's revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the vice president owned 6,465 shares in the company, valued at $689,944.80. The trade was a 35.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752 in the last quarter. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Crown Castle by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,840,605 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $7,175,256,000 after purchasing an additional 6,341,150 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Crown Castle by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 21,387,895 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $2,229,260,000 after purchasing an additional 538,049 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 1.9% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 228,007 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at $561,714,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Crown Castle by 1.0% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 58,903 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company's stock.

About Crown Castle

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.