Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $98.5222.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Crown Castle from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a “hold” rating and a $90.00 price target for the company. Zacks Research raised shares of Crown Castle from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, March 5th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 7.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 16,444 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,714,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 6.9% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 87,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,000,000 after acquiring an additional 5,630 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 3.7% in the second quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,655 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $786,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 49.3% in the second quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 10,913 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,121,000 after acquiring an additional 3,603 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 5.6% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 4,955 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $509,000 after acquiring an additional 261 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Trading Up 1.3%

NYSE CCI opened at $83.10 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $36.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.34, a PEG ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a 50 day moving average of $88.95 and a 200-day moving average of $87.51. Crown Castle has a 1-year low of $75.96 and a 1-year high of $115.76.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.55. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $995.42 million. Crown Castle had a net margin of 25.13% and a negative return on equity of 64.64%. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.10 earnings per share. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.380-4.490 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th will be issued a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.1%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 175.62%.

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.