Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Sells 391,768 Shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc reduced its stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 36.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 675,095 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 391,768 shares during the quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned approximately 0.16% of Crown Castle worth $61,272,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Twin Tree Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in Crown Castle by 300.0% in the 4th quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 400 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Marshall Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. Finally, Bank of Jackson Hole Trust bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth about $53,000. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on CCI. New Street Research raised Crown Castle from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $99.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.41.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Crown Castle news, EVP Edward B. Adams, Jr. sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.37, for a total transaction of $850,960.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,183,563.36. This represents a 28.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total value of $2,127,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 110,571 shares in the company, valued at $11,762,542.98. This trade represents a 15.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,600 shares of company stock worth $3,362,752 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Crown Castle Trading Up 1.7 %

NYSE:CCI opened at $105.00 on Friday. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $101.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $97.95. Crown Castle Inc. has a 12-month low of $84.20 and a 12-month high of $120.92. The firm has a market cap of $45.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.23 and a beta of 0.93.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.72 by ($0.62). Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 EPS for the current year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.96%. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -58.18%.

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.