Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Receives $112.71 Average Target Price from Analysts

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and three have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $112.71.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CCI. UBS Group raised Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Crown Castle from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Barclays boosted their price objective on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Monday, May 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $115.00 target price on the stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Crown Castle news, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,762,542.98. The trade was a 15.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total value of $384,192.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,465 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $689,944.80. This trade represents a 35.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752. 0.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCI. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 3.0% in the first quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 3,532 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $368,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 18.9% during the 1st quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 672 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. Abel Hall LLC boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Abel Hall LLC now owns 6,393 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $666,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 36.6% during the 1st quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 448 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 37,357 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,894,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $99.28 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $101.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $96.74. The stock has a market cap of $43.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.23, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle has a 12-month low of $84.20 and a 12-month high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.62). Crown Castle had a negative net margin of 78.12% and a negative return on equity of 164.40%. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. Crown Castle’s revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 6.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.28%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently -39.50%.

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.