Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires New Shares in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,985 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $229,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Everpar Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth approximately $510,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,478,477 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $625,975,000 after acquiring an additional 122,948 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Crown Castle by 42.1% in the 4th quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,832 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,284,000 after acquiring an additional 5,878 shares in the last quarter. Lincoln National Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 11,156 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,285,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Machina Capital S.A.S. bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $971,000. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on CCI shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Argus downgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $112.64.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI traded up $0.89 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $98.20. 202,142 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,871,226. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $101.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.63. The firm has a market cap of $42.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $84.72 and a 52 week high of $119.60.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The business’s revenue was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.91 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.37%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is presently 195.63%.

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.