Generali Asset Management SPA SGR Purchases New Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 33,227 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $3,016,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,476,470,000 after buying an additional 747,390 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 23.8% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,528,597 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,079,417,000 after acquiring an additional 3,371,186 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,105,151 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,434,229,000 after acquiring an additional 151,990 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,218,431 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $473,625,000 after purchasing an additional 130,414 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 7.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,174,920 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $613,900,000 after purchasing an additional 348,296 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group upgraded Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $128.00 to $122.00 in a report on Friday, March 14th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $110.29.

Crown Castle Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:CCI opened at $104.52 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $45.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.07 and a beta of 0.89. 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 1 year low of $84.20 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $91.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.23.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently -69.71%.

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.