Capital Investment Advisors LLC Has $7.71 Million Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 19.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 84,925 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,623 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $7,708,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CCI. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,203,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 3,672.7% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 415 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 32.9% during the 2nd quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 6,427 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $628,000 after buying an additional 1,592 shares during the last quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the 2nd quarter valued at about $236,000. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Crown Castle by 52.8% during the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 127,739 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,480,000 after acquiring an additional 44,161 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE CCI traded up $0.40 during trading on Monday, hitting $84.73. 1,151,128 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,617,189. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $98.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.20 and a 12-month high of $120.92. The firm has a market cap of $36.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.05 and a beta of 0.87.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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). Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. Crown Castle’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.66 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.39%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 221.99%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on CCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $105.00 to $100.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $117.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Monday. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Citigroup set a $128.00 price objective on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.00.

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.