Crown Castle Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.06 (NYSE:CCI)

Key Points

• Crown Castle declared a quarterly dividend of $1.0625 per share, payable September 30 to shareholders of record as of September 15. The payment equates to a 5.7% annualized yield.
• The dividend currently exceeds earnings coverage, with a 151.2% payout ratio, although analysts expect next year’s earnings to reduce the projected payout ratio to 89.1%.
• Crown Castle shares fell 4.3% to $74.29, near the lower end of their 52-week range. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.77% of the stock.

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of 1.0625 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, September 30th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 15th.

Crown Castle has decreased its dividend by an average of 0.0%per year over the last three years. Crown Castle has a payout ratio of 151.2% 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 $4.77 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.25 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 89.1%.

Crown Castle Trading Down 4.3%

NYSE CCI opened at $74.29 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $32.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.71, a PEG ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50 day moving average of $81.97 and a 200-day moving average of $85.15. Crown Castle has a 1-year low of $69.72 and a 1-year high of $106.68.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Crown Castle

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Crown Castle during the fourth quarter worth about $594,670,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in Crown Castle by 124.2% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 11,635,117 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,034,013,000 after acquiring an additional 6,445,237 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 39,790,292 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $3,536,214,000 after acquiring an additional 3,953,685 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in shares of Crown Castle by 591.8% during the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,471,120 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $431,418,000 after acquiring an additional 3,824,778 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Crown Castle by 422.5% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,581,154 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $318,258,000 after purchasing an additional 2,895,756 shares during the period. 90.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle is a U.S.-focused communications infrastructure company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure. Its primary business consists of providing tower-based site leases, small cell networks and fiber solutions that support mobile voice and data transmission for wireless carriers, cable companies and other enterprise customers. The company's assets are positioned to enable network coverage and capacity, including the densification projects associated with 4G LTE and 5G deployments.

Its product and service offerings include ground-based tower sites that host multiple wireless operators, distributed small cell nodes and associated fiber backhaul used to connect sites into carrier networks, and site development and maintenance services.

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