Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Price Target Cut to $123.00 by Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) had its price objective trimmed by Jefferies Financial Group from $126.00 to $123.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Scotiabank decreased their price target on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $119.40.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of CCI opened at $94.37 on Thursday. Crown Castle has a 12-month low of $84.72 and a 12-month high of $134.09. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $105.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $105.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The stock has a market cap of $41.01 billion, a PE ratio of 29.49, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.73.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.78% and a net margin of 20.32%. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.91 EPS. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Crown Castle will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.63%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 195.63%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. United Services Automobile Association boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 23.1% in the third quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 13,411 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,234,000 after acquiring an additional 2,516 shares in the last quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth approximately $201,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 0.5% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 117,914 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,852,000 after acquiring an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 8,611.0% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 703,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $81,006,000 after acquiring an additional 695,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Group LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,005,000. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.