Avestar Capital LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Avestar Capital LLC boosted its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,786 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 361 shares during the period. Avestar Capital LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $331,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 95.5% in the third quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 3,880 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $460,000 after purchasing an additional 1,895 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its position in Crown Castle by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 20,478 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,429,000 after buying an additional 960 shares during the last quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd increased its stake in Crown Castle by 37.6% in the 3rd quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 25,619 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,039,000 after buying an additional 7,000 shares during the period. Capital Square LLC raised its position in Crown Castle by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Square LLC now owns 16,414 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,947,000 after buying an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 23,366 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,772,000 after acquiring an additional 1,308 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of CCI opened at $106.69 on Thursday. Crown Castle Inc. has a twelve month low of $92.48 and a twelve month high of $120.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.83 and a beta of 0.86. 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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $109.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $106.98.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.77 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.87%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 221.99%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on CCI shares. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Citigroup set a $128.00 price target on Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $116.87.

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.