Wedbush Securities Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Wedbush Securities Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 20.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,379 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 873 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $307,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,499,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $5,672,451,000 after acquiring an additional 5,934,615 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,849,846 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,892,332,000 after acquiring an additional 3,321,249 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,333,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,119,225,000 after acquiring an additional 228,007 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $561,714,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Crown Castle by 37.3% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 5,793,842 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $525,849,000 after acquiring an additional 1,573,043 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

Crown Castle stock opened at $95.56 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $99.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market cap of $41.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.89 and a beta of 0.93. Crown Castle Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $84.20 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.565 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.55%. Crown Castle’s payout ratio is -69.71%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on CCI. Bank of America began coverage on Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, March 20th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $110.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research raised Crown Castle from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. KeyCorp raised Crown Castle from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $120.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Citizens Jmp raised Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $110.00.

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.