FourThought Financial Partners LLC Increases Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 332.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 17,720 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 13,621 shares during the quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $2,041,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in Crown Castle by 42.8% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,083,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $651,910,000 after purchasing an additional 2,121,603 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 217.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,058,133 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $281,439,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096,272 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 21.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,134,538 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $932,682,000 after acquiring an additional 1,818,910 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,936,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,098,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,496,330 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,078,861 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,203,648,000 after purchasing an additional 1,064,382 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.0 %

NYSE:CCI traded up $0.95 on Friday, reaching $97.39. 4,119,456 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,351,464. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $102.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.30. The company has a market capitalization of $42.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.43, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.76. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $84.72 and a 12 month high of $119.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion for 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%. Crown Castle’s revenue was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.91 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.43%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently 195.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CCI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Argus cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Eleven equities research 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, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.29.

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.