Jefferies Financial Group Increases Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) Price Target to $127.00

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) had its target price lifted by equities research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $123.00 to $127.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the real estate investment trust’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 12.94% from the stock’s current price.

CCI has been the subject of a number of other reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. TD Cowen cut their price target on Crown Castle from $127.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Barclays upped their price objective on Crown Castle from $112.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.47.

Crown Castle Price Performance

Shares of CCI stock opened at $112.45 on Thursday. Crown Castle has a twelve month low of $84.72 and a twelve month high of $120.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $114.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.10. The company has a market cap of $48.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.19 and a beta of 0.85.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The company had revenue of $1.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 19.20%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.77 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 6.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Michael Joseph Kavanagh sold 10,883 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.72, for a total transaction of $1,128,784.76. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 75,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,792,172.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.39% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Crown Castle

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 4,097.8% during the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 2,524,226 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $246,617,000 after acquiring an additional 2,464,094 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new stake in Crown Castle during the 1st quarter valued at $221,573,000. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in Crown Castle by 191.7% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 2,032,521 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $195,183,000 after buying an additional 1,335,644 shares during the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 95.8% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,578,932 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $251,962,000 after buying an additional 1,261,536 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 68,262.1% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,240,088 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $131,239,000 after buying an additional 1,238,274 shares during the last quarter. 90.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.