Sandhill Capital Partners LLC Cuts Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Sandhill Capital Partners LLC reduced its position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 44.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,002 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 11,110 shares during the quarter. Sandhill Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,613,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 8.9% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,078,861 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,203,648,000 after acquiring an additional 1,064,382 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 14.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,936,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,098,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,496,330 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 21.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,134,538 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $932,682,000 after acquiring an additional 1,818,910 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 42.8% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,083,665 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $651,910,000 after acquiring an additional 2,121,603 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 2.9% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,568,481 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $512,467,000 after acquiring an additional 155,543 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CCI. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Scotiabank cut 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. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.29.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Crown Castle stock traded down $1.24 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $94.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,334,130 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,847,440. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.73. Crown Castle Inc. has a twelve month low of $84.72 and a twelve month high of $123.79. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $104.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $105.33.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.91 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. 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.