Bill Few Associates Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Bill Few Associates Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 3.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,501 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Bill Few Associates Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $653,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Crown Castle by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,609,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,990,991,000 after purchasing an additional 673,243 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Crown Castle by 1.1% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,177,250 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $603,518,000 after purchasing an additional 67,072 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 10.7% in the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,035,561 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $387,333,000 after acquiring an additional 391,127 shares during the period. ClearBridge Investments Ltd raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 19.4% in the 1st quarter. ClearBridge Investments Ltd now owns 2,632,855 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $278,635,000 after acquiring an additional 428,597 shares during the period. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 95.8% in the 2nd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,578,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $251,962,000 after acquiring an additional 1,261,536 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Crown Castle news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total transaction of $1,128,784.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,792,172.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.39% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of CCI stock opened at $114.30 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $49.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.72 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 0.43 and a quick ratio of 0.43. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1-year low of $84.72 and a 1-year high of $120.92. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $113.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $104.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 19.20%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.05 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 195.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CCI has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $112.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $124.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Crown Castle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $115.67.

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.