Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Price Target Lowered to $106.00 at Raymond James Financial

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) had its target price lowered by Raymond James Financial from $120.00 to $106.00 in a research note released on Friday morning,MarketScreener reports. The firm currently has a strong-buy rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently commented on CCI. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Crown Castle from $114.00 to $96.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $105.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $101.00 target price (down previously from $104.00) on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Crown Castle from $102.00 to $90.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $106.75.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.5%

Crown Castle stock traded up $0.39 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $86.58. The stock had a trading volume of 2,553,080 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,407,278. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $83.21 and a 12 month high of $115.76. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $88.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $95.25. The company has a market capitalization of $37.70 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.14, a PEG ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 0.96.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 619.62% and a negative net margin of 95.37%.Crown Castle’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.84 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is -39.98%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Patton Fund Management Inc. grew its stake in Crown Castle by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc. now owns 2,506 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $223,000 after buying an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,029 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $802,000 after buying an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Choreo LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 11.3% during the 4th quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 12,262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,105,000 after acquiring an additional 1,241 shares during the last quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. purchased a new position in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth $737,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 36.5% in the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 692,656 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $61,556,000 after purchasing an additional 185,360 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company’s assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.