Appleton Partners Inc. MA Sells 1,545 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Appleton Partners Inc. MA lessened its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 9.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,828 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,545 shares during the period. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,690,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CCI. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 12.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,066,495 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,150,340,000 after acquiring an additional 1,776,989 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,343,685 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,538,658,000 after purchasing an additional 203,085 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Crown Castle by 5.2% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,200,541 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,231,401,000 after buying an additional 457,468 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 1.3% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,046,249 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,208,030,000 after buying an additional 118,306 shares during the period. Finally, Aristotle Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Crown Castle by 1.2% during the first quarter. Aristotle Capital Management LLC now owns 6,553,356 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $877,101,000 after acquiring an additional 78,928 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CCI. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Crown Castle from $162.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. Raymond James cut their price target on Crown Castle from $128.00 to $126.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 22nd. Bank of America downgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, August 10th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $144.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $138.56.

Crown Castle Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE:CCI opened at $98.40 on Friday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $95.73 and a 12 month high of $164.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.07. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $104.89 and its 200 day moving average is $115.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.67 billion, a PE ratio of 24.97 and a beta of 0.64.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.79 by ($0.74). The firm had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.86 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 23.85% and a return on equity of 23.20%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 7.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Investors of record on Friday, September 15th will be issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.36%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 158.88%.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 85,000 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.