Federated Hermes Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Federated Hermes Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 46.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 669,810 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 581,413 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $77,155,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Crown Castle by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,375 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $322,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Summit Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Crown Castle by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Summit Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,638 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $237,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 3,678 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $679,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 4.2% in the third quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 2,215 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $204,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the period. Finally, Townsend & Associates Inc lifted its position in Crown Castle by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 1,682 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $238,000 after buying an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CCI. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Argus lowered Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped 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. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $118.73.

Crown Castle Trading Up 1.4 %

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

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

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 195.63%.

Crown Castle Profile

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.