Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Sanford C. Bernstein

Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on CCI. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Crown Castle from $112.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 12th. HSBC cut their target price on Crown Castle from $107.00 to $88.40 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 5th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $98.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Crown Castle from a “sell (d)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $100.13.

Crown Castle Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of CCI stock opened at $90.07 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $39.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.18, a PEG ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 0.96. Crown Castle has a 52-week low of $77.01 and a 52-week high of $115.76. The company’s 50 day moving average is $87.29 and its 200 day moving average is $91.53.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.7%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 420.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In related news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 4,650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.34, for a total value of $401,481.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 25,183 shares in the company, valued at $2,174,300.22. This trade represents a 15.59% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.49, for a total value of $262,470.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 5,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $507,442. This represents a 34.09% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,769,393 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,200,406,000 after acquiring an additional 386,733 shares during the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 39,790,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,536,214,000 after purchasing an additional 3,953,685 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Crown Castle by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 22,239,559 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,976,430,000 after purchasing an additional 511,018 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,986,852 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,243,012,000 after purchasing an additional 380,419 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Crown Castle by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,027,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,156,972,000 after purchasing an additional 184,533 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

About Crown Castle

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.