North Star Asset Management Inc. Sells 400 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

North Star Asset Management Inc. trimmed its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 14.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. North Star Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $283,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. United Services Automobile Association raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 13,411 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,234,000 after acquiring an additional 2,516 shares in the last quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth approximately $201,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 0.5% during 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 buying an additional 542 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 8,611.0% during 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 buying an additional 695,163 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,005,000. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CCI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Argus lowered Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Scotiabank cut their target price on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $115.50.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of CCI stock traded down $0.76 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $94.44. 596,060 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,808,947. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $104.88 and its 200-day moving average is $105.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The stock has a market cap of $41.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.73. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $84.72 and a 52 week high of $128.27.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). The business had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.91 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

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