GAMMA Investing LLC Purchases Shares of 2,566 Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 2,566 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $278,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 41.3% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 4,401 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $507,000 after buying an additional 1,286 shares during the last quarter. National Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth approximately $783,000. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,520,391 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $290,324,000 after buying an additional 27,323 shares during the last quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 19,283 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,221,000 after buying an additional 1,456 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 6,291 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $725,000 after buying an additional 425 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Argus cut shares of Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $113.29.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

NYSE CCI opened at $94.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.42. Crown Castle Inc. has a 52-week low of $84.72 and a 52-week high of $123.79. The stock has a market cap of $40.93 billion, a PE ratio of 29.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $103.94 and a 200-day moving average of $105.25.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.91 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.65%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 195.63%.

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.