Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Cut to Sell at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on CCI. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $98.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on Crown Castle from $112.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 12th. New Street Research cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $93.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Weiss Ratings raised Crown Castle from a “sell (d)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on Crown Castle from $96.00 to $94.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $100.02.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of CCI stock opened at $89.56 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $87.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $91.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.05 billion, a PE ratio of 88.67, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.96. Crown Castle has a 52 week low of $77.01 and a 52 week high of $115.76.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $1.0625 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.7%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is 420.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Crown Castle

In other Crown Castle news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 4,650 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.34, for a total value of $401,481.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 25,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,174,300.22. The trade was a 15.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.49, for a total transaction of $262,470.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 5,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $507,442. The trade was a 34.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Crown Castle

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth approximately $594,670,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Crown Castle by 124.2% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,635,117 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,034,013,000 after acquiring an additional 6,445,237 shares in the last quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 39,790,292 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,536,214,000 after acquiring an additional 3,953,685 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 591.8% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,471,120 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $431,418,000 after purchasing an additional 3,824,778 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Crown Castle by 422.5% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,581,154 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $318,258,000 after purchasing an additional 2,895,756 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.