Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Grows Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 5,002,934 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 237,730 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned 1.15% of Crown Castle worth $593,498,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CCI. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the third quarter valued at about $518,000. King Luther Capital Management Corp increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 6,043 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $717,000 after purchasing an additional 441 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 2,706.0% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 105,563 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,523,000 after purchasing an additional 101,801 shares during the last quarter. NS Partners Ltd lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. NS Partners Ltd now owns 156,519 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $18,568,000 after buying an additional 2,680 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerce Bank grew its holdings in Crown Castle by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 60,372 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,162,000 after buying an additional 5,162 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup set a $128.00 price objective on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.87.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

NYSE CCI opened at $104.61 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $110.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.10 and a beta of 0.86. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1-year low of $92.48 and a 1-year high of $120.92. 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 (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The business had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. Crown Castle’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.66 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.98%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 221.99%.

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.