Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,320,000 shares, a decline of 9.7% from the September 30th total of 5,890,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,330,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in Crown Castle during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. Asset Dedication LLC raised its position in Crown Castle by 159.0% during the 2nd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 272 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 167 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC raised its position in Crown Castle by 163.9% during the 1st quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its position in Crown Castle by 107.9% during the 3rd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 262 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

CCI stock traded down $0.31 on Thursday, hitting $107.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,702,685 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,624,168. The stock has a market cap of $46.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.12 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $113.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. Crown Castle has a 1 year low of $90.81 and a 1 year high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The business had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.77 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently 221.99%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CCI. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $112.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.80.

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.