Crestline Management LP Invests $295,000 in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Crestline Management LP bought a new stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 3,251 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $295,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 7.2% in 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 during the period. First Hawaiian Bank raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 28.8% in the fourth quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 5,394 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $490,000 after buying an additional 1,206 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 94,230 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,552,000 after buying an additional 5,705 shares during the period. Green Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 16.5% during the fourth quarter. Green Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 14,845 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,347,000 after buying an additional 2,101 shares during the period. Finally, Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 37.1% during the fourth quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 12,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,162,000 after buying an additional 3,463 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Crown Castle stock opened at $105.00 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.72 billion, a PE ratio of 37.23 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $84.20 and a 52 week high of $120.92. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $101.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.86. 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 (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.62). Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on CCI shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. KeyCorp upped their price target on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.41.

Insider Activity

In other Crown Castle news, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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. This represents a 15.32 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through 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 value of $384,192.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 6,465 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $689,944.80. This represents a 35.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752 over the last three months. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.