Westpac Banking Corp Increases Stake in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Westpac Banking Corp increased its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 61.4% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 29,922 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,386 shares during the period. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $2,433,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wiser Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in Crown Castle in the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new stake in Crown Castle during the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Crown Castle by 55.6% during the first quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC now owns 375 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Salomon & Ludwin LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 128.7% during the fourth quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC now owns 382 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Down 2.5%

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $76.20 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $85.99. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $73.75 and a 12-month high of $115.76. The firm has a market cap of $33.26 billion, a PE ratio of 31.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.95.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.55. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $995.41 million. Crown Castle had a net margin of 25.13% and a negative return on equity of 64.64%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.10 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.6%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 175.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on CCI shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $91.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Truist Financial started coverage on Crown Castle in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “hold” rating and a $90.00 target price for the company. Wolfe Research lowered Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.52.

Crown Castle Profile

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company’s assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.