Crown Castle (CCI)
Real Estate · $31.1B market cap · SEC CIK 0001051470
fundamentals score out of 100
Next reports on Oct 21, 2026, with analysts expecting $0.70 in earnings per share.
The case for CCI
- Generated $2.9B of free cash flow in FY2025, 1337% of revenue.
- 21% of revenue drops through to net profit.
- Free cash flow of 9.2% of its market value a year: a lot of cash for the price.
- Pays a 6.0% dividend while you wait.
- Gross margin of 74% absorbs cost shocks.
The case against
- Revenue fell 23.2% year over year.
- Earnings per share down 67.5%.
- Down 21.8% over the past year.
- Long-term debt of $24.3B would take 8 years of operating cash flow to repay.
- Pricey at 36.1× earnings, against a long-run market average nearer 20×.
- Priced at 7.5× sales with revenue falling 23.2%.
What the score is made of
Each factor is half a curve over reported figures and half a rank among the other Real Estate companies (momentum is judged against fixed thresholds only), and the five are blended by weight. It describes the last filing and the current price. It is not a forecast.
| Valuewhat you pay for the earnings, sales, assets and cash | 50 |
|---|---|
| Growthhow fast revenue and earnings are moving, this year and over five | 5 |
| Profitabilityhow much of the revenue becomes profit, and how much of that is cash | 71 |
| Momentumhow the price has behaved lately | 19 |
| Stabilityhow violently it moves, what it owes and what it pays you | 38 |
- Shareholder equity is negative, so return on equity, price-to-book and debt-to-equity are left out.
- Each factor except momentum is half fixed thresholds, half rank among the 31 Real Estate companies.
Key numbers
| Price / earnings | 36.1× |
|---|---|
| Price / book | n/m (negative equity) |
| Price / sales | 7.5× |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | -23.2% |
| EPS growth (YoY) | -67.5% |
| Gross margin | 74% |
| Operating margin | 48% |
| Net margin | 21% |
| Return on assets | 3.0% (ROE not meaningful: negative equity) |
| Debt / equity | n/m (negative equity) |
| Current ratio | 0.52 |
| Dividend yield | 6.04% |
| Beta | 0.96 |
| 52-week range | $69.72 – $100.50 |
| Position in that range | 9% of the way up |
| 3-month return | -10.8% |
| 1-year return | -21.8% |
Five years of financials, as filed
Pulled from Crown Castle's XBRL filings on SEC EDGAR. Italic rows are derived from the rows above.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $215M | $192M | $421M | $697M | $621M |
| Operating income | $2.1B | $2.1B | $2.1B | $2.4B | $2.0B |
| Net income | $444M | -$3.9B | $1.5B | $1.7B | $1.1B |
| Operating cash flow | $3.1B | $2.9B | $3.1B | $2.9B | $2.8B |
| Capital expenditure | $182M | $176M | $243M | $1.3B | $1.2B |
| Total assets | $31.5B | $32.7B | $38.5B | $38.9B | $39.0B |
| Total liabilities | $33.2B | $32.9B | $32.1B | $31.5B | $30.8B |
| Cash | $99.0M | $100M | $105M | $156M | $292M |
| Long-term debt | $24.3B | $24.1B | $22.9B | $21.7B | $20.6B |
| Free cash flow | $2.9B | $2.8B | $2.9B | $1.6B | $1.6B |
| Operating margin | 965.1% | 1103.1% | 498.1% | 347.9% | 322.2% |
| Net margin | 206.5% | -2032.8% | 356.8% | 240.3% | 176.5% |
| Diluted shares | 437M | 434M | 434M | 434M | 434M |
Share count is essentially flat over 4 years.
What Crown Castle says it does
—The Company" and note 15 to our consolidated financial statements for further information regarding our largest tenants. The expansion or development of our business, including through acquisitions, increased product offerings or other strategic opportunities, may cause disruptions in our business, which may have an adverse effect on our business, operations or financial results. We seek to expand and develop our business, including through acquisitions, increased product offerings, or other strategic opportunities. In the ordinary course of our business, we review, analyze and evaluate various potential transactions or other activities in which we may engage. Such transactions or activities could be complex, costly and time-consuming, or cause disruptions in, increase risk to or otherwise negatively impact our business. Among other things, such transactions and activities may: • disrupt our business relationships with our…
Risk factors CCI lists in its 10-K
- "Item 1. Business", "Item 7. MD&A—General Overview",
- Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
- "Item 1. Business—Overview," "Item 1. Business—REIT Status,"
- "Item 1A. Risk Factors," "Item 7. MD&A—General Overview—Common Stock Dividend," "Item 7. MD&A—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Financing Activities—Common Stock"
- Recent Sales of Unregistered Equity Securities
- 2024 At-the-Market Stock Offering Program
- "Item 7. MD&A—Liquidity and Capital Resources"
- Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
- Highlights of Business Fundamentals and Results
- "Item 7. MD&A—General Overview—Outlook Highlights"
- "Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk"
- "Item 7. MD&A—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Debt Covenants"
- "Item 7. MD&A—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Financing Activities"
- "Item 1. Business," "Item 7. MD&A—Liquidity and Capital Resources"