Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Decreases Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc trimmed its holdings in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 36.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 675,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 391,768 shares during the quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $61,272,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,174,920 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $613,900,000 after acquiring an additional 348,296 shares in the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank raised its stake in Crown Castle by 28.8% during the fourth quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 5,394 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $490,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206 shares during the period. Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 94,230 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,552,000 after acquiring an additional 5,705 shares during the last quarter. Green Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 16.5% in the fourth quarter. Green Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 14,845 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,347,000 after acquiring an additional 2,101 shares during the period. Finally, Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 37.1% in the fourth quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 12,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,162,000 after acquiring an additional 3,463 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Crown Castle news, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total transaction of $2,127,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 110,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,762,542.98. The trade was a 15.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total value of $850,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,528 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,183,563.36. This trade represents a 28.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752. 0.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Crown Castle Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $105.00 on Friday. Crown Castle Inc. has a twelve month low of $84.20 and a twelve month high of $120.92. The stock has a market cap of $45.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.23 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The company’s fifty day moving average is $101.47 and its 200-day moving average is $97.95.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.62). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.72 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently -58.18%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CCI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citizens Jmp upgraded Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group raised shares of Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Crown Castle from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.41.

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.