Quantbot Technologies LP Acquires 64,377 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Quantbot Technologies LP raised its position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 163.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 103,713 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 64,377 shares during the quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $10,007,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CCI. Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 25.8% in the 3rd quarter. Foresight Group Ltd Liability Partnership now owns 103,407 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,950,000 after purchasing an additional 21,194 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 15.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 70,963 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,847,000 after buying an additional 9,552 shares during the period. Country Club Bank lifted its position in Crown Castle by 20.1% in the third quarter. Country Club Bank now owns 70,778 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,808,000 after buying an additional 11,851 shares during the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 6.1% during the third quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,419,034 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $233,413,000 after buying an additional 138,061 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 656,795 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $63,374,000 after acquiring an additional 21,986 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CCI. HSBC dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $107.00 to $88.40 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Crown Castle from $90.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Crown Castle from a “sell (d)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $100.02.

Insider Activity at Crown Castle

In other Crown Castle news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 4,650 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.34, for a total transaction of $401,481.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 25,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,174,300.22. This trade represents a 15.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.49, for a total value of $262,470.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 5,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $507,442. This trade represents a 34.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Crown Castle Stock Up 3.6%

Shares of CCI stock opened at $89.54 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $39.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 88.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $87.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $91.85. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $77.01 and a fifty-two week high of $115.76.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 420.79%.

Crown Castle Profile

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company’s assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.