Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Short Interest Up 16.3% in February

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 7,070,000 shares, a growth of 16.3% from the February 13th total of 6,080,000 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,190,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CCI has been the subject of a number of research reports. KeyCorp upgraded Crown Castle from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $120.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Wolfe Research upgraded Crown Castle from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday. Raymond James upgraded Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $128.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, 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 research report on Friday, March 14th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $110.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Crown Castle by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,672,451,000 after purchasing an additional 5,934,615 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 3.7% in the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 747,390 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 18.9% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,892,332,000 after acquiring an additional 3,321,249 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,333,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,119,225,000 after acquiring an additional 228,007 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Crown Castle in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $561,714,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of CCI opened at $104.59 on Friday. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $92.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $101.25. Crown Castle has a 52-week low of $84.20 and a 52-week high of $120.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.45 billion, a PE ratio of 37.09 and a beta of 0.89.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.99%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently -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.