Raymond James Financial Cuts Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Price Target to $106.00

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) had its price objective lowered by Raymond James Financial from $120.00 to $106.00 in a report released on Friday,MarketScreener reports. The firm currently has a strong-buy rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on CCI. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $107.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 9th. New Street Research cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $93.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 5th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $127.00 to $116.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Crown Castle from $124.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Crown Castle from $102.00 to $90.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $106.75.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of CCI stock opened at $86.58 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $88.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $95.14. The stock has a market cap of $37.70 billion, a PE ratio of -8.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 0.96. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $83.21 and a 12 month high of $115.76.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a $1.0625 dividend. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 15th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -39.98%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 0.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,290,381 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,118,201,000 after purchasing an additional 449,776 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Crown Castle by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 21,728,541 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,096,587,000 after purchasing an additional 266,963 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Crown Castle by 33.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,437,685 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $621,172,000 after purchasing an additional 1,605,291 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Crown Castle by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,185,915 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $596,876,000 after buying an additional 177,896 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 2nd quarter valued at $629,431,000. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Company Profile

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company’s assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.