Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Sold by First American Bank

First American Bank lowered its position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 1.1% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 60,886 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 705 shares during the quarter. First American Bank’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $6,346,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $561,714,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 5,934,615 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,321,249 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,573,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $95,167,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $100.09 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The firm has a market cap of $43.58 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $84.20 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $101.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $96.71.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a negative net margin of 78.12% and a negative return on equity of 164.40%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -39.50%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CCI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. New Street Research raised Crown Castle from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Argus raised Crown Castle to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Crown Castle from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.71.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total transaction of $850,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,183,563.36. This represents a 28.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were 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 $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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.