Park Avenue Securities LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Park Avenue Securities LLC reduced its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,548 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,739 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $3,499,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Crown Castle by 23.8% in 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 buying an additional 3,371,186 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Crown Castle by 433.8% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,968,959 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $470,838,000 after purchasing an additional 3,225,460 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in Crown Castle by 191.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 2,032,521 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $195,183,000 after purchasing an additional 1,335,644 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Crown Castle by 13,271.6% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 973,185 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $115,449,000 after purchasing an additional 965,907 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,875,581 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,476,470,000 after purchasing an additional 747,390 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CCI shares. Barclays upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $117.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $105.00 to $100.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup set a $128.00 price objective on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.00.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Crown Castle stock opened at $90.67 on Friday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.20 and a 12-month high of $120.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $97.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $105.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.40 billion, a PE ratio of 32.15 and a beta of 0.87.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced 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). The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 221.99%.

Crown Castle 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.