915 Shares in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Bought by Hills Bank & Trust Co

Hills Bank & Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 915 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $109,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in Crown Castle during the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 107.9% during the third quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 159.0% during the second quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 272 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 163.9% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Finally, New Millennium Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target 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. Citigroup set a $128.00 target price on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.87.

Crown Castle Stock Down 0.8 %

CCI opened at $106.58 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $113.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.74. The company has a market capitalization of $46.32 billion, a PE ratio of 37.79 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 current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43.

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

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.87%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 221.99%.

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.