Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Rating Increased to Overweight at KeyCorp

KeyCorp upgraded shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) from a sector weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report released on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. KeyCorp currently has $120.00 price target on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

CCI has been the topic of several other reports. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $118.00 to $102.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Moffett Nathanson cut their price target on Crown Castle from $127.00 to $105.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James upgraded Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and cut their price target for the company from $128.00 to $122.00 in a report on Friday. JMP Securities initiated coverage on Crown Castle in a report on Monday, January 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.12.

Crown Castle Trading Up 8.5 %

CCI opened at $103.20 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $91.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $101.49. The company has a market capitalization of $44.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.59 and a beta of 0.89. Crown Castle has a 52 week low of $84.20 and a 52 week high of $120.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.07%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 221.99%.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Crown Castle by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,672,451,000 after acquiring an additional 5,934,615 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Crown Castle by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,476,470,000 after acquiring an additional 747,390 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Crown Castle by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,892,332,000 after acquiring an additional 3,321,249 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Crown Castle by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,333,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,119,225,000 after acquiring an additional 228,007 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth about $561,714,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.