Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. Cuts Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lessened its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 76,593 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 3,006 shares during the quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $8,823,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the third quarter valued at about $459,000. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 19.3% during the third quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 21,100 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,942,000 after buying an additional 3,412 shares during the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management grew its holdings in Crown Castle by 36.1% during the 3rd quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 2,852 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $262,000 after buying an additional 756 shares in the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. grew its holdings in Crown Castle by 45.5% during the 3rd quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 30,517 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,808,000 after buying an additional 9,549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 243,123 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $22,375,000 after acquiring an additional 3,916 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $109.00 to $100.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $112.64.

Crown Castle Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of CCI stock traded down $1.24 on Wednesday, reaching $102.38. 1,961,020 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,836,809. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $98.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $106.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.49 billion, a PE ratio of 31.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52 week low of $84.72 and a 52 week high of $119.50.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). The company had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.91 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.11%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 195.63%.

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.