Focus Partners Wealth Sells 39,489 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Focus Partners Wealth cut its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 71.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,730 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 39,489 shares during the quarter. Focus Partners Wealth’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,441,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $561,714,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Crown Castle by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,672,451,000 after buying an additional 5,934,615 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Crown Castle by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,892,332,000 after buying an additional 3,321,249 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in Crown Castle by 37.3% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,793,842 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $525,849,000 after buying an additional 1,573,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $95,167,000. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In other news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,183,563.36. The trade was a 28.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total transaction of $384,192.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,465 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $689,944.80. This trade represents a 35.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised Crown Castle from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Crown Castle from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Argus raised Crown Castle to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Raymond James raised Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $128.00 to $122.00 in a report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.41.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI stock opened at $102.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $101.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $97.56. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $84.20 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.55 billion, a PE ratio of 36.28 and a beta of 0.93.

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

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is -58.18%.

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.