Here's How Crown Castle Can Afford Its 5.4% Dividend Yield
As an income investor, it can be tempting to indiscriminately buy the highest-yielding stocks to generate huge passive income for your portfolio. But investors should be very careful about what stocks they choose. While a big dividend may help juice income in the short run, you run the risk of falling victim to a painful dividend cut at some point.
Fortunately, there are some stocks in the investment universe with yields several times higher than the S&P 500 index's 1.6% yield, and they don't appear to be yield traps. Sporting a 5.4% dividend yield, Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) is one such stock. Let's dig into what makes Crown Castle an income stock that's deserving of your confidence and hard-earned money.
Crown Castle is the biggest U.S.-focused cell tower real estate investment trust (REIT). The company's portfolio consists of more than 40,000 cell towers, roughly 120,000 small cells to enhance communication networks in densely populated areas, and about 85,000 route miles of fiber optic cable. If you're reading this article on your mobile device, there's a good chance you are the beneficiary of Crown Castle's infrastructure being leased to giant telecom companies. Major telecoms lease the company's infrastructure, which makes it possible for them to broadcast their signals and data services to customers.
Source Fool.com