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

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th,Zacks Dividends reports. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid 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 6.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th.

Crown Castle has increased its dividend 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. 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 Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of Crown Castle stock opened at $104.21 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.29 billion, a PE ratio of 36.95 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $113.39 and its 200 day moving average is $106.09. Crown Castle has a 1 year low of $92.48 and a 1 year high of $120.92.

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.73 by ($1.03). The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.64 billion. Crown Castle had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 20.98%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.77 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Crown Castle will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CCI has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. 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 report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock 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 analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.