State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System Raises Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 3.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 474,904 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 17,046 shares during the quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System owned 0.11% of Crown Castle worth $50,259,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 16.2% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,547,032 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $523,773,000 after purchasing an additional 632,398 shares during the period. Court Place Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at about $201,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 931,397 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $98,570,000 after buying an additional 8,136 shares during the period. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,425,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 8,611.0% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 703,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $81,006,000 after buying an additional 695,163 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $126.00 price target (up previously from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Friday, June 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted 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. Bank of America upped their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Crown Castle in a research note on Monday, July 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $104.00 target price for the company. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Crown Castle from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $114.88.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of CCI traded up $0.60 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $106.23. The company had a trading volume of 1,448,542 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,778,790. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $99.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $103.26. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $84.72 and a 52-week high of $119.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.42.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.05 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were given a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.89%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 195.63%.

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.