Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Price Target Increased to $116.00 by Analysts at Barclays

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) had its price objective raised by Barclays from $112.00 to $116.00 in a report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on CCI. Raymond James restated an outperform rating and issued a $126.00 target price (up from $124.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Friday, June 14th. Bank of America increased their price target on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $115.67.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of Crown Castle stock traded up $0.49 on Thursday, reaching $110.43. 78,222 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,634,794. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. Crown Castle has a twelve month low of $84.72 and a twelve month high of $120.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.27 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $113.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $104.75.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. The business had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.05 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Crown Castle will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.67%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 229.30%.

Insider Transactions at Crown Castle

In related news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total value of $1,128,784.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,792,172.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.39% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,547,032 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $523,773,000 after buying an additional 632,398 shares during the period. BOKF NA boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 25.6% in the first quarter. BOKF NA now owns 4,004 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $417,000 after purchasing an additional 815 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 0.9% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 931,397 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $98,570,000 after purchasing an additional 8,136 shares during the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Crown Castle in the first quarter valued at about $4,425,000. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 30.4% in the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 35,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,789,000 after purchasing an additional 8,346 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Company Profile

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.