Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Price Target Cut to $100.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) had its price objective cut by Wells Fargo & Company from $115.00 to $100.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a sector perform rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Argus downgraded Crown Castle from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a market perform rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $117.73.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.9 %

Crown Castle stock opened at $95.26 on Friday. Crown Castle has a fifty-two week low of $84.72 and a fifty-two week high of $131.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.42. The company has a market capitalization of $41.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.77, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $104.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.10.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.92). Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 21.30%. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Crown Castle will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is 195.63%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 404,214 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $42,778,000 after acquiring an additional 5,698 shares during the period. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 7,568 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $801,000 after acquiring an additional 258 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 13.0% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 14,527 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,537,000 after purchasing an additional 1,671 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 49.6% during the 1st quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 13,382 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,416,000 after purchasing an additional 4,437 shares during the period. Finally, Abundance Wealth Counselors lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 26.6% during the 1st quarter. Abundance Wealth Counselors now owns 7,719 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,623 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.