Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.92 EPS

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.92), Yahoo Finance reports. The company had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.63 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.78% and a net margin of 20.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.91 earnings per share. Crown Castle updated its FY24 guidance to $6.85-$6.97 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 6.850-6.970 EPS.

Crown Castle Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:CCI opened at $94.37 on Friday. Crown Castle has a 52-week low of $84.72 and a 52-week high of $134.09. The stock has a market cap of $41.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.49, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $105.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $105.07.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $1.565 dividend. 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 payout ratio is 195.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on Crown Castle from $133.00 to $118.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Crown Castle from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Crown Castle from $126.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Argus cut Crown Castle from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $118.73.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,343,685 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,538,658,000 after purchasing an additional 203,085 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 1.3% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,046,249 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,208,030,000 after purchasing an additional 118,306 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,004,229 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $691,627,000 after purchasing an additional 435,748 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 78.7% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 5,463,901 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $629,386,000 after purchasing an additional 2,405,768 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $642,077,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.