Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.92 EPS

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) released its earnings results on Wednesday. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92), Yahoo Finance reports. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.78% and a net margin of 20.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.91 earnings per share. Crown Castle updated its FY24 guidance to $6.85-$6.97 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 6.850-6.970 EPS.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.4 %

Crown Castle stock opened at $94.37 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.49, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $105.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.07. Crown Castle has a twelve month low of $84.72 and a twelve month high of $134.09.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.63%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 195.63%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 3.4% during the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,734 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $505,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 33.4% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,954 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $730,000 after purchasing an additional 991 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P increased its position in Crown Castle by 4,497.6% during the 1st quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 5,701 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,052,000 after purchasing an additional 5,577 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 4,802 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $886,000 after buying an additional 525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 205.9% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 878 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $162,000 after buying an additional 591 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CCI. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Argus lowered shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $118.73.

Crown Castle Company Profile

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.