Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Shares Gap Up to $93.05

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report)'s share price gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $93.05, but opened at $95.69. Crown Castle shares last traded at $93.56, with a volume of 424,456 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CCI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $119.40.

Crown Castle Trading Up 1.4 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $41.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.27, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a current ratio of 0.40 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $105.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.07.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.95% and a net margin of 21.47%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.91 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.63%. Crown Castle's payout ratio is 180.92%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCI. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth $581,503,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 90,084.4% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,487,430 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $473,035,000 after acquiring an additional 3,483,563 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 78.7% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,463,901 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $629,386,000 after acquiring an additional 2,405,768 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 42.8% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,083,665 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $651,910,000 after acquiring an additional 2,121,603 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 21.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,134,538 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $932,682,000 after acquiring an additional 1,818,910 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.