Cooke & Bieler LP Purchases 511,763 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Cooke & Bieler LP boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 21.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,930,797 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 511,763 shares during the period. Crown Castle comprises approximately 2.7% of Cooke & Bieler LP’s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Cooke & Bieler LP’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $260,460,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 25.8% during the 3rd quarter. Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership now owns 103,407 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,950,000 after buying an additional 21,194 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 15.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 70,963 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,847,000 after buying an additional 9,552 shares during the period. National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 656,795 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $63,374,000 after buying an additional 21,986 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 13.9% during the 4th quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 1,052,667 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $93,551,000 after buying an additional 128,212 shares during the period. Finally, Vinva Investment Management Ltd grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 30.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 197,804 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $19,027,000 after buying an additional 46,693 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Crown Castle news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 4,650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.34, for a total value of $401,481.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 25,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,174,300.22. This trade represents a 15.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,000 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.49, for a total transaction of $262,470.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 5,800 shares in the company, valued at $507,442. This trade represents a 34.09% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on CCI shares. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $91.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $84.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “hold” rating and a $90.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $94.00 to $91.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.52.

Crown Castle Price Performance

NYSE:CCI opened at $91.42 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $86.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $87.61. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $75.96 and a 12 month high of $115.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.90 billion, a PE ratio of 37.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 0.93.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.55. Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 64.64% and a net margin of 25.13%.The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $995.42 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.10 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.380-4.490 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 4.22 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be given a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.6%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 175.62%.

About Crown Castle

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.