Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Shares Bought by Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 83.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 384,805 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 175,086 shares during the quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $45,649,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in Crown Castle in the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. Asset Dedication LLC grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 159.0% in the 2nd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 272 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Crown Castle by 163.9% during the first quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the second quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, New Millennium Group LLC purchased a new position in Crown Castle in the 2nd quarter worth about $34,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $116.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Crown Castle stock traded up $0.63 on Friday, reaching $112.38. 2,336,240 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,637,112. The company has a current ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. Crown Castle Inc. has a twelve month low of $84.72 and a twelve month high of $120.92. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $114.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.10. The stock has a market cap of $48.84 billion, a PE ratio of 41.19 and a beta of 0.85.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). The business had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 19.20% and a net margin of 17.98%. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.77 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.57%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 229.30%.

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.