Crown Castle Inc. (CCI) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.57 on March 31st

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 1.565 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $6.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.41%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th.

Crown Castle has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.7% per year over the last three years. Crown Castle has a payout ratio of 222.8% 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

CCI opened at $97.73 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $90.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.65. Crown Castle has a 52-week low of $84.20 and a 52-week high of $120.92. The company has a market cap of $42.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.66 and a beta of 0.89.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on CCI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Moffett Nathanson lowered their price target on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays upgraded Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $117.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $108.75.

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.