Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $23.91 Million Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB decreased its holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 2.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 229,369 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 6,931 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $23,907,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Twin Tree Management LP acquired a new position in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. American National Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Crown Castle in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Crown Castle in the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in Crown Castle by 95.2% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 408 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Crown Castle

In other Crown Castle news, VP Robert Sean Collins sold 3,600 shares of Crown Castle stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.72, for a total transaction of $384,192.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 6,465 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $689,944.80. The trade was a 35.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Daniel K. Schlanger sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.38, for a total transaction of $2,127,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 110,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,762,542.98. The trade was a 15.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,600 shares of company stock valued at $3,362,752 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on CCI shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Crown Castle from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Royal Bank of Canada increased 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 report on Friday, May 2nd. New Street Research upgraded shares of Crown Castle from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. JMP Securities upped their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Crown Castle from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.71.

Crown Castle Stock Up 0.8%

CCI stock opened at $99.81 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $100.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.02. The company has a market cap of $43.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.39 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $84.20 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.62). The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. Crown Castle’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.0625 per share. This represents a $4.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.26%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently -39.50%.

Crown Castle 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.