MFG Wealth Management Inc. Buys New Stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

MFG Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 17,073 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $1,780,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA raised its position in Crown Castle by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 3,532 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $368,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 36.6% during the first quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 448 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc increased its stake in Crown Castle by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 2,373 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $216,000 after buying an additional 133 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its position in Crown Castle by 62.1% during the 1st quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 347 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,526 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $227,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CCI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Crown Castle from $107.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group raised shares of Crown Castle from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $118.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Crown Castle from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $85.00 to $105.00 in a report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $104.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Crown Castle currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.71.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CCI opened at $101.80 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $44.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.46, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle Inc. has a one year low of $84.20 and a one year high of $120.92. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $101.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $96.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by ($0.62). The business had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a negative return on equity of 164.40% and a negative net margin of 78.12%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.72 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a $1.0625 dividend. This represents a $4.25 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio is currently -39.50%.

Insider Activity

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

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.