Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Shares Down 4.6% on Analyst Downgrade

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)’s stock price was down 4.6% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Barclays lowered their price target on the stock from $101.00 to $91.00. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Crown Castle traded as low as $87.61 and last traded at $87.6020. Approximately 1,912,349 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 47% from the average daily volume of 3,576,674 shares. The stock had previously closed at $91.86.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Crown Castle from $97.00 to $91.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $95.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $96.00 to $94.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.02.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 12.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,260,583 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $645,248,000 after buying an additional 822,898 shares during the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $507,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Crown Castle by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 32,284 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,869,000 after acquiring an additional 1,732 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 87.9% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 43,305 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,849,000 after acquiring an additional 20,260 shares during the period. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,389,000. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Price Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average price of $87.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.58. The company has a market capitalization of $37.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 85.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.96.

About Crown Castle

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.