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

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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.96%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th.

Crown Castle has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.3% per year 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. 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 Price Performance

NYSE CCI traded up $0.77 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $104.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 43,890 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,608,194. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54. Crown Castle has a 1-year low of $92.48 and a 1-year high of $120.92. The company’s 50-day moving average is $113.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $106.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.95 and a beta of 0.86.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced 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 business had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Crown Castle will post 6.65 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on CCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Barclays increased their target price on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Citigroup set a $128.00 price objective on Crown Castle in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Twelve 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, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $116.87.

Crown Castle Company 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.