Sittner & Nelson LLC Boosts Stock Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Sittner & Nelson LLC lifted its position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 105.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,928 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 1,501 shares during the quarter. Sittner & Nelson LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $347,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Malaga Cove Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Malaga Cove Capital LLC now owns 5,546 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $658,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Blake Schutter Theil Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the 3rd quarter valued at $304,000. M&G PLC raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 2,180,221 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $259,446,000 after buying an additional 21,843 shares during the period. Umpqua Bank raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Umpqua Bank now owns 5,092 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $604,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the period. Finally, Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 140.6% in the 3rd quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 9,069 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,076,000 after buying an additional 5,300 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CCI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $116.87.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:CCI opened at $104.21 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $113.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $106.09. The stock has a market cap of $45.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.95 and a beta of 0.86. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $92.48 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.01%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 221.99%.

Crown Castle Profile

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.