Vanderbilt University Acquires 12,241 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. $CCI

Vanderbilt University boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 167.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,563 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,241 shares during the period. Vanderbilt University’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,739,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its stake in Crown Castle by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,728,541 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,096,587,000 after acquiring an additional 266,963 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Crown Castle by 33.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,437,685 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $621,172,000 after acquiring an additional 1,605,291 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Crown Castle by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,185,915 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $596,876,000 after acquiring an additional 177,896 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Crown Castle by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,621,490 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $542,418,000 after acquiring an additional 232,549 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Crown Castle by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,534,066 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $568,515,000 after acquiring an additional 117,904 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 14th. Zacks Research raised shares of Crown Castle from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Crown Castle from a “sell (d)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $101.00 to $91.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $97.00 to $91.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.28.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 4,650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.34, for a total value of $401,481.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 25,183 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.49, for a total transaction of $262,470.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI stock opened at $84.89 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $85.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $89.25. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $75.96 and a fifty-two week high of $115.76. The firm has a market cap of $37.02 billion, a PE ratio of 84.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 0.94.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th were issued a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.0%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 420.79%.

Crown Castle Company 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.