Wellington Shields & Co. LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Wellington Shields & Co. LLC increased its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 50.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,500 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $159,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 17.4% in the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 27,047 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,862,000 after acquiring an additional 4,016 shares during the last quarter. CapWealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 2.4% in the first quarter. CapWealth Advisors LLC now owns 38,102 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,032,000 after acquiring an additional 892 shares during the last quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 6.4% in the first quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. now owns 7,645 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $809,000 after acquiring an additional 463 shares during the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the first quarter valued at $1,581,000. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 6.2% in the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 2,268 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $240,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on CCI. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Argus cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.53.

Crown Castle Stock Down 0.1 %

Crown Castle stock traded down $0.13 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $96.93. The stock had a trading volume of 593,279 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,797,589. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. The stock has a market cap of $42.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.83. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $84.72 and a 12 month high of $119.50. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $98.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $103.72.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.91 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.62 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.46%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 195.63%.

About Crown Castle

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.