Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $1.57

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE:CCI - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid 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 6.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th.

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. 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

NYSE:CCI traded up $0.68 during trading on Friday, reaching $94.13. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,198,303 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,822,608. The firm has a market cap of $40.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.38 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $89.75 and a 200-day moving average of $102.32. Crown Castle has a 12 month low of $84.20 and a 12 month high of $120.92.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. JMP Securities initiated coverage on Crown Castle in a research note on Monday, January 27th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $100.00 to $85.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on Crown Castle from $116.00 to $96.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays raised Crown Castle from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $117.00 to $104.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Crown Castle from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $127.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price 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.