Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 97.3% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 29,703 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,652 shares during the quarter. Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $3,384,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CCI. Argent Trust Co grew its stake in Crown Castle by 3.3% in the first quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 12,183 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,631,000 after purchasing an additional 384 shares in the last quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 9.7% in the first quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 3,462 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $463,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. Toroso Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 29.0% during the first quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 61,463 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,226,000 after buying an additional 13,803 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 13,708 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,835,000 after buying an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC grew its position in shares of Crown Castle by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 63,314 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,214,000 after buying an additional 1,565 shares during the last quarter. 90.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CCI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $115.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, August 10th. Scotiabank started coverage on Crown Castle in a report on Friday, October 13th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $110.00 price target for the company. Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $104.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 20th. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Monday, October 16th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $125.56.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI traded up $0.25 on Tuesday, reaching $104.68. The stock had a trading volume of 260,576 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,735,403. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $94.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $104.14. The company has a market cap of $45.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.66. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.72 and a 12-month high of $153.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.28.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.69 by ($1.08). The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 21.93% and a return on equity of 21.85%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.85 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 7.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 15th will be given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.98%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 174.86%.

Crown Castle Profile

Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 85,000 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.