Empowered Funds LLC Invests $3.94 Million in Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 51,970 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $3,936,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CCI. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Crown Castle in the 2nd quarter worth $3,326,154,000. Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 39,790,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,536,214,000 after acquiring an additional 3,953,685 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 22,239,559 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,976,430,000 after acquiring an additional 511,018 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,986,852 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,243,012,000 after acquiring an additional 380,419 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Crown Castle by 15.7% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 13,463,182 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,094,691,000 after purchasing an additional 1,828,065 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on CCI. Wall Street Zen upgraded Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $88.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Crown Castle from $95.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.13.

Crown Castle Price Performance

NYSE CCI opened at $76.25 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $76.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $83.81. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $69.72 and a 52-week high of $100.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.71, a P/E/G ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.95.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.17). Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.71% and a negative return on equity of 51.60%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $995.05 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.67 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.530-4.650 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 4.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be issued a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.6%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is 215.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Crown Castle news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.89, for a total value of $113,835.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 5,113 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $388,025.57. This represents a 22.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.