Traders Purchase Large Volume of Crown Castle Call Options (NYSE:CCI)

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders bought 5,102 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 81% compared to the typical volume of 2,824 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 189.5% in the third quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 56,544 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $5,204,000 after buying an additional 37,012 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 22,600 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $2,080,000 after acquiring an additional 1,600 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 49,898 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $4,592,000 after purchasing an additional 2,259 shares in the last quarter. Telos Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 6.4% during the third quarter. Telos Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,070 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $375,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. Finally, Albion Financial Group UT raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 155.1% in the third quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 43,211 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $3,977,000 after purchasing an additional 26,269 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. 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, April 18th. Argus downgraded Crown Castle from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $109.00 to $100.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $112.64.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI traded down $1.13 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $102.89. 3,082,727 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,898,213. The firm has a market capitalization of $44.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.76. Crown Castle has a one year low of $84.72 and a one year high of $119.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.42. The company's 50 day moving average is $100.35 and its 200 day moving average is $106.07.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The business had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.91 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Crown Castle will post 6.58 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.08%. Crown Castle's payout ratio is 195.63%.

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.