Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $88.49, but opened at $91.05. Crown Castle shares last traded at $91.05, with a volume of 364,459 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on CCI shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. JMP Securities assumed coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research note on Monday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $118.00 to $102.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Citigroup set a $128.00 price objective on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $110.13.

Crown Castle Stock Down 3.0 %

The company has a market cap of $38.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.78 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $95.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.34.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $1.565 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.98%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is presently 221.99%.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCI. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 29.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,243,722 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $113,465,000 after acquiring an additional 282,821 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 24.7% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 157,895 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $17,476,000 after purchasing an additional 31,319 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the 4th quarter worth $1,231,000. Avanza Fonder AB acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at $3,083,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Crown Castle by 4.2% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,088,017 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $603,592,000 after buying an additional 203,442 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.