Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. Takes $38,000 Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 413 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $38,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Twin Tree Management LP bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Marshall Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, South Plains Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CCI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $99.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Argus upgraded shares of Crown Castle to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Crown Castle from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.71.

Insider Activity at Crown Castle

In related news, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total value of $2,127,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 110,571 shares in the company, valued at $11,762,542.98. The trade was a 15.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of Crown Castle 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 sale, the vice president now owns 6,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $689,944.80. This trade represents a 35.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $100.17 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $84.20 and a 52 week high of $120.92. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $101.91 and its 200 day moving average is $97.32. The company has a market cap of $43.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.52 and a beta of 0.93.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a $1.0625 dividend. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is -58.18%.

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.