Skip to Content
Morningstar

Crown Castle Inc CCI

Morningstar Rating
Unlock
Stock XNYS Rating as of
$102.50 +2.87 (2.88%)
View Full Chart
As of Delayed Price Closed
Unlock our analysis with Morningstar Investor
Start Free Trial

Company Report

View Archive

Small Cells Are Not the Impediment They Once Were to Crown Castle’s Business

Matthew Dolgin

Crown Castle has a different strategy than its two biggest competitors, which focus almost exclusively on towers and have a multinational footprint. Crown operates exclusively in the United States and has aggressively invested in fiber to pursue small cell communications sites. After years of disappointment and sucking up capital, we think the small cell business is past the point of destroying value, making it much more attractive to operate or to sell.

Read Full Report

Price vs Fair Value

View History
CCI is trading at a 675% premium.
Price
$102.50
Fair Value
$587.00
Uncertainty
Medium
1-Star Price
$619.10
5-Star Price
$43.00
Economic Moat
Hmmtgkp
Capital Allocation
Sccr

Bulls Say, Bears Say

Bulls

Crown’s tower business runs on autopilot. It requires very minimal capital spending and is virtually assured of stable growth each year due to contractual rent escalators, and mostly fixed costs.

Bears

Crown is spending too much on small cells, which have fewer competitive advantages and lower margin profiles and returns on investment than towers.

Show More
Is it the right time to buy, sell, or hold?
Start a free trial of Morningstar Investor to unlock exclusive ratings and continuous analyst coverage to help you decide if CCI is a good fit for your portfolio.
Get 7 Days Free

News

View All

Trading Information

Previous Close Price
$99.63
Day Range
$99.99–102.71
52-Week Range
$84.72–119.50
Bid/Ask
$100.24 / $103.28
Market Cap
$44.54 Bil
Volume/Avg
3.2 Mil / 2.8 Mil

Key Statistics

Price/Earnings (Normalized)
26.48
Price/Sales
6.50
Dividend Yield (Trailing)
6.28%
Dividend Yield (Forward)
6.28%
Total Yield
6.17%

Company Profile

Crown Castle International owns and leases roughly 40,000 cell towers in the United States. It also owns more than 85,000 route miles of fiber. It leases space on its towers to wireless service providers, which install equipment on the towers to support their wireless networks. The company’s fiber is primarily leased by wireless service providers to set up small-cell network infrastructure and by enterprises for their internal connection needs. Crown Castle’s towers and fiber are predominantly located in the largest U.S. cities. The company has a very concentrated customer base, with about 75% of its revenue coming from the big three U.S. mobile carriers. Crown Castle operates as a real estate investment trust.
Sector
Real Estate
Industry
REIT - Specialty
Stock Style Box
Mid Value
Total Number of Employees
5,000
Website
https://www.crowncastle.com

Competitors

Valuation

View More
Metric
CCI
AMT
SBAC
Price/Earnings (Normalized)
 26.4833.2035.71
Price/Book Value
 7.3722.01—
Price/Sales
 6.507.957.94
Price/Cash Flow
 13.0615.7114.35
Price/Earnings
CCI
AMT
SBAC

Financial Strength

Metric
CCI
AMT
SBAC
Quick Ratio
 0.270.530.16
Current Ratio
 0.420.630.19
Interest Coverage
 2.662.422.30
Quick Ratio
CCI
AMT
SBAC

Profitability

Metric
CCI
AMT
SBAC
Return on Assets (Normalized)
 4.34%4.32%8.09%
Return on Equity (Normalized)
 25.15%61.42%—
Return on Invested Capital (Normalized)
 7.03%6.85%12.74%
Return on Assets
CCI
AMT
SBAC
See how this stock stacks up to its competitors with Morningstar Investor
Start Free Trial

REIT - Specialty Industry Comparables

Screen in Investor
Ticker
Name
Morningstar Rating for Stocks
Capital Allocation
Economic Moat
Market Cap
AMT
American Tower CorpFwlvxsrhNkrmvbt$91.4 Bil
EQIX
Equinix IncQnbwvynrqGcxymmk$72.4 Bil
DLR
Digital Realty Trust IncDmpmszkwBrxzky$47.2 Bil
IRM
Iron Mountain IncDdmncxmsLdgypmy$23.0 Bil
WY
Weyerhaeuser CoPmbwzszWzjg$21.7 Bil
SBAC
SBA Communications Corp Class ADvyqgrxfWnpjqr$21.1 Bil
GLPI
Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc—Gjhq$12.2 Bil
RYN
Rayonier IncRhdybmgsKwnm$4.3 Bil
UNIT
Uniti Group IncDstycfqrNgsmp$759.2 Mil

Sponsor Center