Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Stock Has Average Target Price of $94.27

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-one brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have assigned a hold recommendation, eight have assigned a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $94.27.

Several brokerages recently commented on CCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $80.00 in a report on Monday, September 14th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $88.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Monday. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $95.00 to $87.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $85.00 price objective on Crown Castle in a report on Monday, September 21st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Crown Castle news, VP Robert Collins sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.89, for a total value of $113,835.00. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 5,113 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $388,025.57. This trade represents a 22.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Crown Castle in the second quarter valued at $3,326,154,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 0.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,023,394 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,743,562,000 after purchasing an additional 211,633 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 15.7% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 13,463,182 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,094,691,000 after purchasing an additional 1,828,065 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 2.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,325,747 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $514,320,000 after purchasing an additional 144,538 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the second quarter worth about $456,897,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

NYSE:CCI opened at $87.80 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $75.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $82.22. The firm has a market cap of $37.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.21, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.94. Crown Castle has a one year low of $65.32 and a one year high of $95.32.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.69 by ($0.02). Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 42.11% and a net margin of 20.12%. The firm had revenue of $995.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.12 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 4.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th were paid a $1.0625 dividend. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 15th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 223.68%.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle Inc (NYSE: CCI) is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and leases communications infrastructure in the United States. Its assets support wireless carriers, broadcasters, government agencies and other communications providers by enabling the transmission of voice, data and video services.

The company’s infrastructure has historically included approximately 40,000 cell towers, about 90,000 route miles of fiber and a large portfolio of small-cell installations.