Jefferies Financial Group Cuts Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Price Target to $123.00

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) had its price objective trimmed by Jefferies Financial Group from $126.00 to $123.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the real estate investment trust's stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $119.40.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI stock traded up $1.32 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $94.37. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,937,712 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,808,958. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $105.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $105.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. Crown Castle has a 1 year low of $84.72 and a 1 year high of $134.09. The stock has a market cap of $41.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.27, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.73.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.95% and a net margin of 21.47%. The business had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.91 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in Crown Castle by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,734 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $505,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 33.4% in the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,954 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $730,000 after acquiring an additional 991 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased its stake in Crown Castle by 4,497.6% in the 1st quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 5,701 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,052,000 after acquiring an additional 5,577 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in Crown Castle by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 4,802 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $886,000 after acquiring an additional 525 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Crown Castle by 205.9% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 878 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $162,000 after acquiring an additional 591 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.