Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to Sell

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) was downgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report released on Wednesday.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on CCI. JMP Securities lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Citizens Jmp raised Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $108.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $121.00 to $115.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.71.

Crown Castle Price Performance

CCI opened at $99.88 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $102.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $97.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The company has a market cap of $43.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.42 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle has a 12-month low of $84.20 and a 12-month high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.62). The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. Research analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Crown Castle news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total transaction of $850,960.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,528 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,183,563.36. This represents a 28.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total value of $2,127,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 110,571 shares in the company, valued at $11,762,542.98. This represents a 15.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 10.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,840,605 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,175,256,000 after acquiring an additional 6,341,150 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth approximately $561,714,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Crown Castle by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,892,332,000 after buying an additional 3,321,249 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Crown Castle during the first quarter worth approximately $305,876,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in Crown Castle by 60.9% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 5,472,921 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $570,443,000 after buying an additional 2,072,198 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.