Is This Towering 5%-Yielding Dividend at Risk?
Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) pays a towering dividend. The real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on data and communications infrastructure yields more than 5%. That puts it near the top of the S&P 500, where the average dividend yield is less than 1.5%.
Crown Castle had been growing its payout at a healthy clip until pressing pause a couple of years ago because of several headwinds. The infrastructure REIT had planned to restart its dividend growth engine next year. However, a potential sale of its fiber and small cell assets could instead lead the REIT to reset its dividend.
Crown Castle is one of the largest cell tower operators in the country, having over 40,000 sites. It's right behind rival REIT American Tower (NYSE: AMT), which owns 42,000 tower sites in the country. Where the two infrastructure REITs differ is in their other assets. American Tower focused on international expansion and data centers. It owns 224,000 global sites and 28 data centers in the United States. Crown Castle focused on other U.S. data infrastructure assets by investing heavily in building fiber and small cell platforms.
Source Fool.com
