GAMMA Investing LLC Makes New Investment in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,566 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $278,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. United Services Automobile Association raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 13,411 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,234,000 after purchasing an additional 2,516 shares during the period. Court Place Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 0.5% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 117,914 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $10,852,000 after acquiring an additional 542 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 8,611.0% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 703,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $81,006,000 after acquiring an additional 695,163 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Manning & Napier Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,005,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Trading Down 1.3 %

CCI opened at $94.20 on Friday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $84.72 and a 52 week high of $123.79. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $103.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.25. The firm has a market cap of $40.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). The company had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.91 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 195.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on CCI. Barclays increased their target price on Crown Castle from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Bank of America cut their price target on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price target on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $113.29.

Crown Castle Company 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.