Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Now Covered by Analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein

Stock analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set an “outperform” rating and a $102.00 price target on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Sanford C. Bernstein’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 13.48% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. New Street Research lowered shares of 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $95.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings raised Crown Castle from a “sell (d)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their price target on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $98.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $100.13.

Crown Castle Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of NYSE:CCI traded down $1.27 during trading on Thursday, hitting $89.88. 81,116 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,531,513. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $87.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $91.54. Crown Castle has a 52 week low of $77.01 and a 52 week high of $115.76. The company has a market cap of $39.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 88.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 0.96.

Insider Transactions at Crown Castle

In related news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 4,650 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 25th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,174,300.22. The trade was a 15.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.49, for a total value of $262,470.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 5,800 shares in the company, valued at $507,442. The trade was a 34.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CCI. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 24.0% during the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 599 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its position in Crown Castle by 74.5% in the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 281 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Choreo LLC boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 11,021 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,063,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. United Asset Strategies Inc. now owns 4,931 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $438,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Equity Partners increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 4,567 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $441,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

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.