Moors & Cabot Inc. Purchases New Shares in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Moors & Cabot Inc. purchased a new stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,914 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $264,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versor Investments LP lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 120.0% during the 4th quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 8,447 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $767,000 after acquiring an additional 4,608 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 29.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,243,722 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $113,465,000 after acquiring an additional 282,821 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at $1,231,000. Avanza Fonder AB bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter valued at $3,083,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,088,017 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $603,592,000 after acquiring an additional 203,442 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Crown Castle Stock Up 8.5 %

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $103.20 on Monday. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $84.20 and a one year high of $120.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $91.00 and its 200 day moving average is $101.32. The firm has a market cap of $44.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.59 and a beta of 0.89.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.07%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 221.99%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group upgraded Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday. Raymond James upgraded Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $128.00 to $122.00 in a research report on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays upgraded Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $117.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JMP Securities began coverage on Crown Castle in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $109.12.

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.