Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Short Interest Up 26.7% in October

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,740,000 shares, an increase of 26.7% from the October 15th total of 5,320,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,270,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets increased 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. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.87.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quent Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 10.9% during the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,346 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $248,000 after buying an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 8.4% during the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 61,777 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,538,000 after buying an additional 4,776 shares during the last quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 14.2% in the 1st quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 5,610 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $594,000 after buying an additional 699 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the first quarter worth $221,573,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 0.9% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 1,897,790 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $198,218,000 after buying an additional 17,338 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Crown Castle stock traded up $0.88 during trading on Friday, hitting $103.80. The stock had a trading volume of 2,289,527 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,603,859. Crown Castle has a 1 year low of $92.48 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $112.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $106.38. The stock has a market cap of $45.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.62 and a beta of 0.86.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.66 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is 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.