Bright Futures Wealth Management LLC. Makes New Investment in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Bright Futures Wealth Management LLC. bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 2,336 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $228,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,547,032 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $523,773,000 after buying an additional 632,398 shares in the last quarter. Court Place Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $201,000. BOKF NA grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 25.6% during the first quarter. BOKF NA now owns 4,004 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $417,000 after buying an additional 815 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 0.9% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 931,397 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $98,570,000 after buying an additional 8,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the first quarter worth about $4,425,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CCI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Barclays boosted 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, April 23rd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.20.

Crown Castle Stock Up 2.6 %

NYSE CCI traded up $2.92 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $115.21. 2,633,025 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,235,651. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12 month low of $84.72 and a 12 month high of $119.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $50.07 billion, a PE ratio of 36.00 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50 day moving average of $101.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $102.76.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.04. Crown Castle had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 19.20%. The firm had revenue of $1.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.05 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th were issued a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.43%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 195.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total value of $1,128,784.76. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 75,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,792,172.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.39% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Crown Castle Company 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.