Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $118.93.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on CCI shares. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $107.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in Crown Castle by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,375 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $322,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Summit Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Crown Castle by 5.5% in the third quarter. Summit Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,638 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $237,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 2.4% in the first quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 3,678 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $679,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the period. Townsend & Associates Inc increased its stake in Crown Castle by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 1,682 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $238,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Finally, Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA increased its stake in Crown Castle by 4.2% in the third quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 2,215 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $204,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $96.71 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $42.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.95, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 0.73. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $106.16 and its 200 day moving average is $105.08. Crown Castle has a 1 year low of $84.72 and a 1 year high of $134.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a current ratio of 0.40 and a quick ratio of 0.40.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.47%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 180.92%.

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.