Goldman Sachs’ List Of Stocks Popular With Mutual Fund Managers: Top 20 Stocks

10. Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)

Number of  Mutual Funds: 21

Number of Hedge Fund Investors in Q2 2024: 38

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) is a telecommunications real estate investment trust headquartered in Houston, Texas. The firm operates by leasing cell towers and fiber optic lines for communications. Its reliance on the telecommunications industry for its revenue means that Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) flourishes when companies have easy access to money to lease infrastructure and grow their networks. Consequently, the stock is down 4.6% year to date, but it appears to have reversed the trend after Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI)’s earnings report in July. These results saw the firm’s second quarter site rental revenue of $1.58 billion beat analyst estimates of $1.56 billion and its $251 million in net income surpass analyst estimates of $235 million. These beats were key for Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) as it has struggled to control costs and maintain revenue growth, leading to activist Elliot Management taking a stake in the company. Cost control and a potential sale of its business units to generate cash could further ease the firm’s troubles, especially since it maintained its full year outlook in Q2 to signal to investors that perhaps a turnaround was just around the corner.

Aristotle Partners mentioned Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) in its Q2 2024 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:

“During the quarter, we sold our positions in Crown Castle and Veralto and invested in American Water Works.

We first invested in Crown Castle, a provider of telecommunications infrastructure (including towers, fiber and small cells), in 2021. During our holding period, tenancy ratios for the company’s tower business increased. However, the company’s fiber and small cell business segments have yet to deliver the expected benefits from the 5G network transition. Additionally, the CEO of Crown Castle stepped down at the end of 2023, influenced by Elliott Investment Management, an activist investor. Concurrently, the company has initiated a strategic and operational review of its fiber segment to determine whether to pursue a turnaround or a complete/partial sale. Given the uncertainty surrounding the company’s business strategy and new management team, we decided to exit the investment. We will continue to monitor the company from the sidelines.”