Crown Castle (CCI) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $43.83B
• Dividend Yield: 4.22%
• Average Volume (3M): 3.01M
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 33.8
• Beta (1Y): 0.24
• Revenue Growth: -12.57%
• EPS Growth: -375.80%
• Country: US
• Employees: 3,900
• Sector: Real Estate
• Sector Strength: 55
• Industry: REIT - Specialty
• EPS (TTM): -1.07
• Shares Outstanding: 435,458,800
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 3,677,045
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 3,011,328
• PEG Ratio: 0.47
• Price to Book (P/B): -34.78
• Price to Sales (P/S): 0.00
• P/FCF Ratio: 21.35
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 1.67
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 2.84
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 15.80
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 13.96
• 1Y Price Target: $114.00
• Price Target Upside: 13.26% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Moderate Buy
• Number of Analyst Covering: 10

• Rating: 55 Neutral
• Price Target: $102.00 ▲(1.34%Upside)

Crown Castle's overall stock score is driven by financial challenges, including negative profitability and high leverage, which weigh heavily on its financial performance. The positive sentiment from the recent earnings call and commitment to shareholder returns, including a dividend and share repurchase program, provide some optimism. Technical analysis and valuation present a mixed outlook, with neutral trends and an attractive dividend yield but a negative P/E ratio.

Positive Factors

Capital Allocation

The company has announced a dividend rebase and a $3.0bn share buyback program, making it more of a capital allocation story.

Financial Performance

Q1 AFFOps of $1.10 beat consensus/BMOe of $1.02/$1.03, benefitting from better margins and lower interest expense and maintenance capex.

Negative Factors

Dividend Cut

Management rebased its dividend to $4.25 per share annualized starting in 2Q25, implying a ~30% dividend cut vs. prior annualized dividend of $6.27 per share.

Leadership Transition

The leadership transition adds uncertainty, and valuation has already largely re-rated.

Crown Castle Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

Crown Castle International Corp. (CCI) is a leading provider of communications infrastructure in the United States. The company specializes in owning, operating, and leasing a comprehensive portfolio of towers, small cells, and fiber networks. These assets are essential for facilitating wireless communication, including cellular and data transmission services, thereby supporting the growing demand for mobile data and connectivity across various sectors.

How the Company Makes Money

Crown Castle makes money primarily through the leasing of its infrastructure assets to wireless carriers and other businesses. The company generates revenue from long-term contracts with wireless service providers who deploy their equipment on Crown Castle's towers and small cell nodes. Additionally, Crown Castle earns income from its extensive fiber network by offering high-capacity data transport services to enterprises, government agencies, and other customers. Key revenue streams include site rental revenues from towers, small cells, and fiber, as well as services revenues from network construction and maintenance. Crown Castle's strategic partnerships with major wireless carriers and its extensive infrastructure footprint in urban and suburban areas are significant factors contributing to its earnings.

Crown Castle Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Crown Castle's financial performance reveals significant challenges, mainly due to negative profitability metrics, including a negative EBIT and net income. The balance sheet further highlights insolvency risks with negative stockholders' equity, while high leverage poses additional financial threats. Despite these concerns, the company maintains positive cash flow from operations, providing some financial flexibility.

Income Statement

Crown Castle's income statement shows significant challenges, with negative EBIT and net income in the latest TTM period. Gross profit margin remains high at approximately 77.4%, but the net profit margin is deeply negative, indicating profitability issues. Revenue has seen a decline compared to previous years, with a TTM revenue of $5.988 billion compared to $6.568 billion in 2024. The negative EBIT and EBITDA margins further underline operational inefficiencies.

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet reveals financial instability, with negative stockholders' equity of -$1.253 billion in the latest TTM, indicating insolvency issues. The debt-to-equity ratio is not calculable due to negative equity, pointing to significant leverage risks. Total assets have decreased slightly, while total liabilities exceed total assets, raising concerns about financial health. The equity ratio is unfavorable, highlighting potential risks in the company's capital structure.

Cash Flow

Cash flow analysis shows some resilience, with positive operating cash flow of $2.614 billion in the TTM period. However, free cash flow has decreased slightly from the previous period. The operating cash flow to net income ratio is strong due to the negative net income, indicating that cash operations are still generating funds despite reported losses. The free cash flow to net income ratio is similarly skewed by negative net income.

Breakdown	TTM	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021	Dec 2020
Income Statement
Total Revenue	5.99B	6.57B	6.98B	6.99B	6.34B	5.84B
Gross Profit	4.63B	4.72B	5.00B	4.92B	4.35B	3.89B
EBITDA	-1.47B	-1.24B	4.20B	4.17B	3.67B	3.19B
Net Income	-4.68B	-3.90B	1.50B	1.68B	1.10B	1.06B
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	31.76B	32.74B	38.53B	38.92B	39.04B	38.77B
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	60.00M	119.00M	105.00M	156.00M	292.00M	232.00M
Total Debt	29.68B	29.61B	28.81B	27.96B	27.01B	25.42B
Total Liabilities	33.01B	32.87B	32.15B	31.47B	30.78B	29.31B
Stockholders Equity	-1.25B	-133.00M	6.38B	7.45B	8.26B	9.46B
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	2.04B	1.72B	1.70B	1.57B	1.50B	1.43B
Operating Cash Flow	2.98B	2.94B	3.13B	2.88B	2.73B	3.06B
Investing Cash Flow	-1.16B	-1.22B	-1.52B	-1.35B	-1.33B	-1.74B
Financing Cash Flow	-1.85B	-1.71B	-1.65B	-1.67B	-1.31B	-1.27B

Crown Castle Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Positive
• Last Price: 100.65
• 50DMA: Positive
• 100DMA: Positive
• 200DMA: Positive
• MACD: Negative
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Neutral

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For CCI, the sentiment is Positive. The current price of 100.65 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 99.58, above the 50-day MA of 100.63, and above the 200-day MA of 98.51, indicating a bullish trend. The MACD of 0.36 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 52.46 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 52.32 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Positive sentiment for CCI.

Crown Castle Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
SBAC	69 Neutral	$24.80B	30.55	-14.67%	1.92%	-0.29%	47.83%
AMT	66 Neutral	$101.95B	55.89	80.05%	3.12%	-6.05%	-11.75%
Sector *	63 Neutral	$6.87B	19.10	-1.13%	7.17%	4.77%	-25.03%
UNIT	58 Neutral	$1.04B	16.21	-3.72%	3.53%	2.44%	305.26%
CCI	55 Neutral	$43.83B	33.81	-198.54%	4.22%	-12.57%	-375.80%

Crown Castle Corporate Events

Crown Castle Declares Quarterly Cash Dividend

On May 21, 2025, Crown Castle announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.0625 per common share, payable on June 30, 2025, to stockholders of record as of June 13, 2025. This decision reflects Crown Castle’s ongoing commitment to returning value to its shareholders, reinforcing its stable financial position within the communications infrastructure industry.

The most recent analyst rating on (CCI) stock is a Hold with a $115.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Crown Castle stock, see the CCI Stock Forecast page.

Crown Castle Streamlines Governance at Annual Meeting

At the Annual Meeting on May 21, 2025, Crown Castle‘s stockholders made several key decisions. They elected nine directors, ratified PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditors for 2025, approved executive compensation, and amended the company’s charter to remove supermajority vote requirements and outdated provisions, reflecting a move towards more streamlined governance.

The most recent analyst rating on (CCI) stock is a Hold with a $115.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Crown Castle stock, see the CCI Stock Forecast page.

Crown Castle Reports Q1 2025 Results, Maintains Outlook

Crown Castle Inc. reported its first-quarter 2025 results, maintaining its full-year outlook despite a decline in site rental revenues and adjusted EBITDA compared to the previous year. The company is focusing on maximizing shareholder value by transitioning to a pure-play tower business following the sale of its small cells and fiber solutions businesses. This strategic move aims to position Crown Castle as the only public pure-play tower company in the U.S., which is considered the best market for tower ownership. The company also announced a revised capital allocation framework, including a reduction in annualized dividends, to enhance financial flexibility and strengthen its balance sheet.

Crown Castle CEO Steven Moskowitz Resigns from Board

On April 10, 2025, Steven J. Moskowitz, the former President and CEO of Crown Castle Inc., resigned from the company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately.