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

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 1.565 per share by the real estate investment trust on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.84%.

Crown Castle has raised its dividend by an average of 4.7% annually over the last three years. Crown Castle has a dividend payout ratio of 222.0% indicating that 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 Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:CCI traded down $1.75 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $91.58. 3,345,726 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,816,795. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $89.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $102.69. The firm has a market cap of $39.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.48 and a beta of 0.88. Crown Castle has a 12-month low of $84.20 and a 12-month high of $120.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on CCI. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $118.00 to $102.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. JMP Securities initiated coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a research report on Monday, January 27th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 price target for the company. Moffett Nathanson cut their price objective on Crown Castle from $127.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Citizens Jmp raised Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Crown Castle from $128.00 to $106.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Crown Castle has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.