Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) was downgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Monday.

CCI has been the subject of several other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $108.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. JMP Securities raised their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. New Street Research upgraded Crown Castle from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.41.

Crown Castle Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE CCI opened at $106.55 on Monday. Crown Castle has a 12-month low of $84.20 and a 12-month high of $120.92. The company has a market cap of $46.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.78 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $100.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.99.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.62). The company had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.72 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Crown Castle will post 6.67 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total value of $850,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,183,563.36. This trade represents a 28.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total value of $384,192.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,465 shares in the company, valued at $689,944.80. This represents a 35.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752 over the last ninety days. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Crown Castle by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,672,451,000 after buying an additional 5,934,615 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 18.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,892,332,000 after acquiring an additional 3,321,249 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,333,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,119,225,000 after acquiring an additional 228,007 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at $561,714,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in Crown Castle by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,144,359 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $557,662,000 after purchasing an additional 58,903 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.