River Road Asset Management LLC Sells 1,821 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

River Road Asset Management LLC trimmed its position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 2.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 83,594 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,821 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $9,629,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Crown Castle by 1,014.1% in the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,615 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $647,000 after buying an additional 5,111 shares during the last quarter. St. James Investment Company LLC boosted its position in Crown Castle by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. St. James Investment Company LLC now owns 150,207 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $17,302,000 after buying an additional 14,294 shares during the last quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. boosted its position in Crown Castle by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 4,986 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $574,000 after buying an additional 815 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC boosted its position in Crown Castle by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 3,924 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $452,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Keel Point LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle in the 4th quarter valued at $219,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CCI. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $118.57.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $94.50 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $41.06 billion, a PE ratio of 26.89, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.73. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $84.72 and a 12 month high of $134.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $105.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.15.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). The business had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.95% and a net margin of 21.47%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.91 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 180.92%.

Crown Castle 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.