Argus Downgrades Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) to Hold

Argus lowered shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Scotiabank cut their price target on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $117.73.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE CCI opened at $95.26 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $41.39 billion, a PE ratio of 29.77, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $84.72 and a 12 month high of $131.43. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $104.88 and a 200-day moving average of $105.10.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). The company had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.91 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle will post 6.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.57%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 195.63%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. United Services Automobile Association grew its position in Crown Castle by 23.1% in the third quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 13,411 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,234,000 after acquiring an additional 2,516 shares during the last quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at about $201,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 0.5% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 117,914 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,852,000 after purchasing an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 8,611.0% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 703,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $81,006,000 after purchasing an additional 695,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at about $5,005,000. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.