Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Receives $116.80 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the fifteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $116.87.

Several research firms recently issued reports on CCI. Barclays upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Crown Castle stock opened at $108.36 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The company has a market capitalization of $47.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.43 and a beta of 0.86. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $113.69 and its 200 day moving average is $106.01. Crown Castle has a twelve month low of $92.48 and a twelve month high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). The business had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The business’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.78%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 221.99%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Crown Castle by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,609,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,990,991,000 after purchasing an additional 673,243 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Crown Castle by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,177,250 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $603,518,000 after buying an additional 67,072 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in Crown Castle by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,035,561 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $387,333,000 after purchasing an additional 391,127 shares during the period. ClearBridge Investments Ltd increased its position in Crown Castle by 19.4% during the 1st quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd now owns 2,632,855 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $278,635,000 after purchasing an additional 428,597 shares during the period. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP increased its position in Crown Castle by 95.8% during the 2nd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,578,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $251,962,000 after purchasing an additional 1,261,536 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.