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

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $98.5222.

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CCI. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Friday, May 22nd. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Barclays upped their price target on Crown Castle from $91.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised their price objective on Crown Castle from $102.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in Crown Castle by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 16,444 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,714,000 after purchasing an additional 1,150 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in Crown Castle by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 87,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,000,000 after purchasing an additional 5,630 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 worth $786,000 after buying an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,121,000 after buying an additional 3,603 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $509,000 after buying an additional 261 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of CCI stock opened at $79.24 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $85.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $86.18. The stock has a market cap of $34.59 billion, a PE ratio of 32.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.40 and a beta of 0.95. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $73.75 and a 12 month 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.55. Crown Castle had a net margin of 25.13% and a negative return on equity of 64.64%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $995.41 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.10 EPS. Crown Castle’s quarterly revenue was down 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Crown Castle has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.380-4.490 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $1.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.4%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 175.62%.

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.