Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Sells 2,018 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky trimmed its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 5.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 32,431 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 2,018 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $3,847,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 24.7% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 157,895 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $17,476,000 after buying an additional 31,319 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 4.2% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,088,017 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $603,592,000 after buying an additional 203,442 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 3,111.6% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 13,328 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,581,000 after buying an additional 12,913 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 7.9% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,059,300 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $125,665,000 after buying an additional 77,135 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 7.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,174,920 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $613,900,000 after buying an additional 348,296 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on CCI. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.53.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of CCI stock opened at $97.10 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $42.20 billion, a PE ratio of 34.43 and a beta of 0.86. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $106.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $107.08. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $92.48 and a 12 month high of $120.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The firm had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 221.99%.

Crown Castle Profile

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.