#2 - Crown Castle International (NYSE:CCI)
Crown Castle International (CCI) - Crown Castle International (NYSE:CCI) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and leases much of the cellular infrastructure that enable mobile data traffic and access to the internet from mobile devices.
As I mentioned in the introduction, the current cellular infrastructure will not be sufficient to support 5G technology. One example is the small cell towers that will have to connect to streetlights, buildings, or poles that supplement a cell tower. And one of the key areas that CCI invests in is the small cell towers.
This is significant because small cell towers address the one limitation of 5G technology. The tradeoff for getting an ultrafast connection is that the connection has a very limited range. This means that there will need to be a massive amount of small cell towers throughout the country. CCI leases out 65,000 of these small cell towers.
So far in 2020, CCI stock is up over 5%, and has risen over 31% in the last twelve months. But beyond this organic growth, CCI is also a great dividend stock. The company has delivered 5 consecutive years of dividend growth. And because the company is a REIT, it pays at least 90% of its earnings to shareholders as dividends.
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.
- Current Price
- $94.02
- Consensus Rating
- Hold
- Ratings Breakdown
- 4 Buy Ratings, 10 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
- Consensus Price Target
- $113.29 (20.5% Upside)
