MetLife Investment Management LLC Sells 16,981 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

MetLife Investment Management LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 13.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 111,961 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 16,981 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $12,757,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Almanack Investment Partners LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Centerpoint Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle in the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. HBC Financial Services PLLC purchased a new stake in Crown Castle in the 1st quarter worth $33,000. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 169.5% in the 2nd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 318 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ICA Group Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Institutional investors own 90.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CCI shares. Citigroup decreased their target price on Crown Castle from $138.00 to $126.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 17th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $100.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $151.00 to $113.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 16th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $137.00 to $116.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $125.56.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $104.00 on Tuesday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $84.72 and a 52 week high of $153.98. The company has a market capitalization of $45.10 billion, a PE ratio of 29.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.66. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $94.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $104.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by ($1.08). The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.85% and a net margin of 21.93%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.85 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 7.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.02%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently 174.86%.

Crown Castle Profile

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.