J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Acquires 201 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 5.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,718 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $428,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CCI. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 8.9% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,078,861 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,203,648,000 after buying an additional 1,064,382 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 14.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,936,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,098,526,000 after buying an additional 1,496,330 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 21.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,134,538 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $932,682,000 after buying an additional 1,818,910 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 42.8% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,083,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $651,910,000 after buying an additional 2,121,603 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 2.9% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,568,481 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $512,467,000 after buying an additional 155,543 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Bank of America lowered their price target on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted 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 lowered 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, April 18th. Finally, Argus lowered Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.29.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI stock opened at $95.47 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $104.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.40. The company has a market cap of $41.48 billion, a PE ratio of 29.83, a PEG ratio of 2.53 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.72 and a 12-month high of $128.27.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. The business had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.91 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 issued a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.56%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 195.63%.

Crown Castle Company Profile

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.