Sigma Planning Corp Cuts Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Sigma Planning Corp reduced its position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 54.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,713 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 6,843 shares during the quarter. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $658,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Crown Castle by 8.9% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,078,861 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,203,648,000 after purchasing an additional 1,064,382 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $1,098,526,000 after buying an additional 1,496,330 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake 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 worth $932,682,000 after buying an additional 1,818,910 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake 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 worth $651,910,000 after buying an additional 2,121,603 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake 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 worth $512,467,000 after buying an additional 155,543 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on CCI. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Argus downgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.29.

Crown Castle Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $95.44 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $104.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $105.33. The company has a market cap of $41.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.73. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $84.72 and a fifty-two week high of $125.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.42.

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

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.56%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 195.63%.

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.