Crown Castle price target raised to $108 from $106 at Citi

Citi raised the firm’s price target on Crown Castle (CCI) to $108 from $106 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. Crown Castle announced the sale of its fiber assets for $8.5B, and the go-forward plan is to establish itself as a domestic tower pure-play portfolio, the analyst tells investors in a research note. While the combination of a higher transaction value and a $3B buyback, accretes about $8/share of value, Crown is absorbing unanticipated Sprint churn of about $180M over nine years, partly offset by a slightly lower organic churn rate that dilutes value by ~$6, the firm says. The firm believes the initial reaction for Crown Castle shares can be modestly positive.