Advertisement
U.S. markets open in 9 hours 21 minutes
  • S&P Futures

    5,207.75
    -7.00 (-0.13%)
     
  • Dow Futures

    39,201.00
    -22.00 (-0.06%)
     
  • Nasdaq Futures

    18,179.00
    -52.50 (-0.29%)
     
  • Russell 2000 Futures

    2,047.30
    -2.50 (-0.12%)
     
  • Crude Oil

    82.52
    -0.20 (-0.24%)
     
  • Gold

    2,165.00
    +0.70 (+0.03%)
     
  • Silver

    25.34
    +0.08 (+0.30%)
     
  • EUR/USD

    1.0879
    +0.0002 (+0.02%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.3400
    +0.0360 (+0.84%)
     
  • Vix

    14.33
    -0.08 (-0.56%)
     
  • GBP/USD

    1.2725
    -0.0004 (-0.03%)
     
  • USD/JPY

    149.7230
    +0.6250 (+0.42%)
     
  • Bitcoin USD

    65,598.92
    -2,143.79 (-3.16%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • FTSE 100

    7,722.55
    -4.87 (-0.06%)
     
  • Nikkei 225

    39,591.37
    -149.07 (-0.38%)
     

Guggenheim: Cell Tower REIT Crown Castle Has Compelling Outlook As 5G, Mobile Data Grow

Crown Castle International (NYSE: CCI) reported strong fourth-quarter results Wednesday, backed by an ongoing high level of spending by all four major wireless carriers in the U.S., according to Guggenheim.

The Analyst

Guggenheim’s Robert Gutman maintains a Buy rating on Crown Castle with an unchanged $120 price target.

The Thesis

Crown Castle’s net organic growth for the year was in-line with expectations, Gutman said in a Friday note.

A minor increase in small-cell bookings at year-end resulted in full-year leasing of $58 million versus the estimate of $55 million, the analyst said.

The 2019 outlook seems solid, with revenue, EBITDA, AFFO and AFFO per share growth of 5.2 percent, 7.2 percent, 7.1 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively, Gutman said. Organic growth should accelerate to 6 percent, he said.

Notably, the company deployed 7,000 small-cell nodes in 2018 and is targeting 10,000-15,000 in 2019, according to Guggenheim.

The small-cell backlog stands at 35,000 nodes, and while this segment’s development has warranted increasing capex, management indicated that this would be “comfortably financed with debt,” Gutman said.

Crown Castle is well-positioned, with carriers increasing their spending on their path to 5G and mobile data traffic expected to grow, according to Guggenheim.

Price Action

Crown Castle shares were trading 1.3-percent higher at $113.37 at the time of publication Friday.

Related Links:

Guggenheim: Wireless Carrier Spending On 5G A Bullish Signal For Tower Companies

Raymond James: T-Mobile, Sprint Merger A Factor In 5G Race With China

Latest Ratings for CCI

Jan 2019

Goldman Sachs

Downgrades

Buy

Neutral

Dec 2018

Wells Fargo

Maintains

Outperform

Outperform

Oct 2018

Barclays

Maintains

Equal-Weight

Equal-Weight

View More Analyst Ratings for CCI
View the Latest Analyst Ratings

See more from Benzinga

© 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Advertisement