West Family Investments Inc. Makes New Investment in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

West Family Investments Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 1,780 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CCI. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 20.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 57,441 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,286,000 after buying an additional 9,635 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 7.8% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 94,450 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $8,692,000 after purchasing an additional 6,828 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 30.0% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 5,268 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $485,000 after purchasing an additional 1,217 shares during the period. NorthRock Partners LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 60.0% in the 3rd quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC now owns 3,617 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $333,000 after purchasing an additional 1,357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 145,900 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $13,427,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Argus downgraded Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.29.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.0 %

Crown Castle stock traded up $0.95 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $97.39. The stock had a trading volume of 4,101,947 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,903,015. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1-year low of $84.72 and a 1-year high of $119.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.42. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $102.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.76.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). The firm 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%. The business’s revenue was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.91 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.