Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) has hit a speed bump. Higher interest rates, consumer consolidation, and reduced customer capital spending will slow its earnings growth rate to a crawl this year. These headwinds will probably affect its earnings over the next couple of years, with the result that the mobile infrastructure company sees dividend growth below its target of 7% to 8% annually over the next few years.

However, the infrastructure REIT expects growth to eventually reaccelerate. Patient investors stand to collect an attractive dividend -- it currently yields 5.9% -- with an equally attractive long-term upside potential.

Crown Castle recently updated its outlook for 2023. The REIT expects to produce between $7.50 and $7.58 per share of adjusted funds from operations (FFO) this year. That's down $0.09 per share from the midpoint of its previous guidance range. At the new midpoint, adjusted FFO would rise by only about 2% this year, down from 3%. That's a significant slowdown from the 6% growth it achieved last year. 

Continue reading

Source Fool.com