Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Short Interest Update

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,310,000 shares, a growth of 5.6% from the November 30th total of 6,920,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,900,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $127.00 to $84.00 in a research note on Thursday. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup set a $128.00 target price on Crown Castle in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.93.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 3.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,476,470,000 after acquiring an additional 747,390 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 23.8% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,528,597 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,079,417,000 after purchasing an additional 3,371,186 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,105,151 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,434,229,000 after buying an additional 151,990 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,177,250 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $603,518,000 after buying an additional 67,072 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 7.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,174,920 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $613,900,000 after buying an additional 348,296 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Crown Castle Trading Down 1.7 %

Crown Castle stock opened at $89.26 on Friday. Crown Castle has a 52 week low of $88.92 and a 52 week high of $120.92. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $38.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.65 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $100.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $106.19.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). The business had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 6.66 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.01%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio 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.