White Knight Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Position in Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

White Knight Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) by 104.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,318 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,784 shares during the period. White Knight Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Crown Castle were worth $1,027,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCI. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 buying an additional 5,934,615 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Crown Castle by 18.9% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 3,321,249 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Crown Castle by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,333,158 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,119,225,000 after buying an additional 228,007 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Crown Castle during the 4th quarter worth about $561,714,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,144,359 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $557,662,000 after purchasing an additional 58,903 shares in the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Crown Castle Trading Up 0.6%

NYSE:CCI opened at $102.92 on Tuesday. Crown Castle Inc. has a 1 year low of $84.20 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The stock has a market cap of $44.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.50 and a beta of 0.93. 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 50-day simple moving average of $101.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $97.46.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced 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 analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Crown Castle Inc. will post 6.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Crown Castle Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $1.565 dividend. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.08%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. Crown Castle’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -58.18%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CCI. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target 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. Argus upgraded Crown Castle to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded Crown Castle from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.71.

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.