Anchor Capital Advisors LLC Buys New Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Anchor Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 353,956 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $40,772,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Operose Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 287 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 154.8% during the 3rd quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 395 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 43.6% during the 4th quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 372 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 123.3% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 480 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 265 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CCI shares. Argus lowered Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. 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, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.29.

Crown Castle Stock Up 1.9 %

CCI traded up $1.74 during trading on Monday, reaching $95.32. 2,476,147 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,841,081. The stock has a market cap of $41.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.73. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $84.72 and a fifty-two week high of $123.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $103.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.41.

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

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

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