Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC Raises Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC lifted its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Free Report) by 36.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 68,443 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after purchasing an additional 18,188 shares during the quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC's holdings in Crown Castle were worth $7,884,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Operose Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle in the third quarter worth $30,000. Valley National Advisers Inc. grew its position in Crown Castle by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 287 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 154.8% during the 3rd quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 395 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 126.1% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 312 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 43.6% in the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 372 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CCI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective 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. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price 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. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $112.64.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock traded down $0.37 on Friday, hitting $99.51. 3,087,193 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,472,332. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $84.72 and a 1 year high of $119.50. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $101.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.24 billion, a PE ratio of 31.10, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.76.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) last released 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 company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. Crown Castle's revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.91 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. 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.