Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Receives $117.00 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have given a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $117.00.

Several brokerages recently commented on CCI. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $105.00 to $100.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 783 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $93,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the period. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 2.4% in the second quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 3,869 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $376,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the period. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 4.4% in the second quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 2,262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $221,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. True North Advisors LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. True North Advisors LLC now owns 2,345 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $278,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. Finally, Granite Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 19,439 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,899,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $90.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $104.76 and a 200 day moving average of $106.85. The firm has a market cap of $39.40 billion, a PE ratio of 32.15 and a beta of 0.86. Crown Castle has a one year low of $89.64 and a one year high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 221.99%.

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.