Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Downgraded to “Hold” at Argus

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

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $119.40.

Crown Castle Trading Up 1.4 %

NYSE CCI opened at $94.37 on Friday. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $84.72 and a 12 month high of $134.09. The stock has a market cap of $41.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.73. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $105.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $105.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92). The business had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 20.32% and a return on equity of 20.78%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.91 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 6.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,078,861 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,203,648,000 after purchasing an additional 1,064,382 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in Crown Castle by 14.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,936,611 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,098,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,496,330 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its position in Crown Castle by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 11,375,567 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,310,559,000 after purchasing an additional 834,198 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Crown Castle by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,260,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,297,147,000 after purchasing an additional 1,126,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Crown Castle by 1.3% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,046,249 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,208,030,000 after purchasing an additional 118,306 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.