Crown Castle Inc. (CCI) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 13th

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th,Zacks Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of 1.565 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $6.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.96%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th.

Crown Castle has raised its dividend by an average of 8.3% per year over the last three years. Crown Castle has a payout ratio of 231.9% 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 Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of CCI traded up $0.77 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $104.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 43,890 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,608,194. 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 company’s 50-day moving average is $113.39 and its 200-day moving average is $106.09. Crown Castle has a 52-week low of $92.48 and a 52-week high of $120.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.95 and a beta of 0.86.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on CCI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Crown Castle from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Crown Castle from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $103.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America lifted their price target 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, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Crown Castle from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Crown Castle 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.