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. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.84%.

Crown Castle has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.7% per year over the last three years. Crown Castle has a payout ratio of 222.0% 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

Shares of Crown Castle stock traded down $1.75 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $91.58. 3,345,726 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,816,795. Crown Castle has a one year low of $84.20 and a one year high of $120.92. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $89.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $102.69. 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 has a market capitalization of $39.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.48 and a beta of 0.88.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CCI shares. Moffett Nathanson reduced their target price on shares of Crown Castle from $127.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Citizens Jmp upgraded Crown Castle to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. JMP Securities began coverage on shares of Crown Castle in a report on Monday, January 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $115.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Crown Castle from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $117.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $108.75.

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.