# Crown Castle Inc. (CCI) — Stock CV

Crown Castle Inc. is a $33.9B real estate company. Revenue shrank 23.3% over the last year, it keeps 21¢ of every dollar of sales as profit, and its net debt equals ~10.1 years of free cash flow. It trades at 39.3× earnings — around the middle of its own history.

> Crown Castle owns or manages roughly 40,000 wireless towers in the United States. It leases space on its towers to wireless service providers, which install equipment to support their wireless networks.

## Identity

- **Ticker**: CCI
- **Sector**: Real Estate
- **Industry**: Real Estate Investment Trusts
- **Headquarters**: HOUSTON, TX
- **Employees**: 4 000
- **Website**: https://www.crowncastle.com
- **Market cap**: $33.9B
- **Last price**: $79.64
- **Financial profile**: Strained

## Vitals (TTM)

- **Revenue**: $4.16B
- **Net income**: $862M
- **Free cash flow**: $2.41B
- **Net debt**: $24.2B
- **P/E**: 39.3
- **Revenue growth (YoY)**: -23.3%

## Skills (profile scores, 0–100)

| Pillar | Score |
|---|---|
| Valuation | 49 |
| Growth | 25 |
| Profitability | 75 |
| Health | 13 |
| Quality | 67 |
| Moat | 50 |

## Qualifications (beginner checklist) — 7 of 11 passed

- [ ] Revenue growing — -23.3% YoY
- [x] Profitable — $862M TTM
- [ ] Profit growing — -35.9% YoY
- [x] Generates cash — $2.41B TTM
- [ ] Debt under control — ~10.1y of cash flow to repay
- [x] Established company — $33.9B market cap
- [x] Not printing shares — +2.8% shares over ~5y
- [x] Proven track record — 9/10 profitable years
- [ ] Financially stable — Altman Z 0.2 — distress
- [x] Pays a dividend — yield 5.49%
- [x] Valuation not extreme — P/E 39.3

## Experience (career milestones)

- **FY2022** — Best year on record: $1.68B net income
- **Jul 19, 2017** — Crown Castle signed an agreement to acquire Lightower, a fiber network operator in the northeast…
- **FY2016** — First recorded profitable year: $357M net income
- **FY2016** — Revenue already above $1B: $3.92B in first reported year
- **FY2016** — Positive free cash flow every year since: 10-year streak
- **2015** — The acquisition of Quanta Fiber Networks (Sunesys) in 2015 gave the company access to over 10,000 miles of fiber in…
- **2014** — Prior to that, in 2014, the company acquired the 24/7 Mid-Atlantic Network with over 800 miles of fiber along the…
- **Jan 12, 2007** — Crown Castle completed the acquisition of Global Signal Inc., another U.S
- **2005** — National Grid Transco plc was renamed to National Grid plc in July 2005
- **1998** — The merger of the two firms, completed in January 1998, more than doubled the assets of the now-merged Crown Castle
- **1997** — Crown Communications merged with Houston's Castle Tower Corporation to form Crown Castle International
- **1980** — Crown Communications was founded in 1980 by Robert and Barbara Crown, natives of the Pittsburgh suburb of Green Tree

## Strengths

- High gross margin (73.7%)
- Strongly profitable — 20.7% net margin
- Strong cash conversion — FCF is 57.8% of revenue

## Watch-outs

- Revenue shrinking 23.3% year over year
- Altman Z-Score 0.24 — elevated financial-distress risk
- Net debt would take ~9.3 years of free cash flow to repay
- Loss-making in 1 of the recent years
- Net debt equals ~10.1 years of free cash flow

## Track record

| Year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2021 | $6.34B | $1.10B | $1.56B |
| FY2022 | $6.99B | $1.68B | $1.57B |
| FY2023 | $6.98B | $1.50B | $1.70B |
| FY2024 | $6.57B | -$3.90B | $1.72B |
| FY2025 | $4.26B | $444M | $2.88B |

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Source: https://stockcv.com/CCI — derived from company filings; may be delayed or incomplete. Information, not investment advice.