Demars Financial Group LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Demars Financial Group LLC reduced its position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,064 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 179 shares during the period. Demars Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $468,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. United Services Automobile Association grew its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 13,411 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,234,000 after buying an additional 2,516 shares during the period. Court Place Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the 4th quarter valued at about $201,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Crown Castle by 0.5% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 117,914 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,852,000 after acquiring an additional 542 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Crown Castle by 8,611.0% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 703,236 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $81,006,000 after acquiring an additional 695,163 shares during the period. Finally, Manning & Napier Group LLC acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $5,005,000. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $111.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $120.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $109.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.29.

Crown Castle Stock Down 1.5 %

CCI stock opened at $94.08 on Wednesday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.72 and a 12-month high of $125.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.73. The company has a market cap of $40.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.83, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a 50 day moving average of $104.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.40.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its 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). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 21.30% and a net margin of 20.32%. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.91 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.65%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 195.63%.

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.