Royal Bank of Canada Acquires 938,653 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 28.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,222,008 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 938,653 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $343,291,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth about $594,670,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 124.2% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,635,117 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,034,013,000 after acquiring an additional 6,445,237 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 39,790,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,536,214,000 after acquiring an additional 3,953,685 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 591.8% in the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,471,120 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $431,418,000 after acquiring an additional 3,824,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 422.5% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,581,154 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $318,258,000 after purchasing an additional 2,895,756 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $79.11 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $83.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.53. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $73.52 and a fifty-two week high of $112.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.95.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th were given a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.4%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is presently 215.74%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CCI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wolfe Research cut shares of Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $88.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. Barclays lifted their target price on Crown Castle from $91.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.13.

Crown Castle Profile

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.