Crown Castle Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.57 (NYSE:CCI)

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th,Zacks Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of 1.565 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th.

Crown Castle has increased its dividend by an average of 8.3% annually over the last three years. Crown Castle has a payout ratio of 231.9% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Crown Castle to earn $6.58 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.26 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 95.1%.

Crown Castle Stock Performance

NYSE CCI opened at $104.21 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $113.39 and a 200-day moving average of $106.09. 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 $45.29 billion, a PE ratio of 36.95 and a beta of 0.86. Crown Castle has a 52-week low of $92.48 and a 52-week high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by ($1.03). The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a return on equity of 20.98% and a net margin of 18.59%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.77 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Crown Castle will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CCI shares. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $116.87.

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.