Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Lowered to “Hold” at Argus

Argus cut shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on CCI. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $117.73.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $95.26 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $104.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.40. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $84.72 and a 12 month high of $131.43. The company has a market cap of $41.39 billion, a PE ratio of 29.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.91 earnings per share. Crown Castle’s revenue was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Crown Castle will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given 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 6.57%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is currently 195.63%.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,375 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $322,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Summit Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 5.5% in the third quarter. Summit Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,638 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $237,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 2.4% in the first quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 3,678 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $679,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 4.2% in the third quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 2,215 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $204,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Townsend & Associates Inc lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 1,682 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $238,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.