Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Stock Rating Lowered by Argus

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) was downgraded by equities researchers at Argus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Scotiabank dropped their price objective 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. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.73.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI stock opened at $95.20 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. Crown Castle has a twelve month low of $84.72 and a twelve month high of $131.43. The business’s fifty day moving average is $104.88 and its 200-day moving average is $105.22. The company has a market cap of $41.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. The business had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.91 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 6.59 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its position in Crown Castle by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,734 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $505,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Crown Castle by 33.4% during the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,954 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $730,000 after purchasing an additional 991 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 4,497.6% in the 1st quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 5,701 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,052,000 after purchasing an additional 5,577 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 4,802 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $886,000 after purchasing an additional 525 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 205.9% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 878 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $162,000 after buying an additional 591 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Crown Castle

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.