Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Invests $631,000 in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 6,952 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $631,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Crown Castle during the third quarter worth about $47,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 300.0% during the fourth quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 400 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Investors Research Corp boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 57.2% during the third quarter. Investors Research Corp now owns 423 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI opened at $95.79 on Tuesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $41.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.97 and a beta of 0.88. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $89.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $102.23. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $84.20 and a 1 year high of $120.92.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 221.99%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CCI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. JMP Securities initiated coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 price objective on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $127.00 to $84.00 in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $128.00 to $106.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $117.00 to $104.00 in a report on Monday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $108.75.

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.