CCI - Crown Castle trims AFFO guidance; Q2 earnings beat consensus

2023-07-19 16:30:16 ET

Crown Castle ( NYSE: CCI ) lowered its 2023 outlook for adjusted funds from operations due to anticipated lower tower activity for the rest of the year, the cell tower REIT said on Wednesday.

The company expects 2023 adjusted FFO per share of $7.50-$7.58, down from its prior outlook of $7.58-$7.68. Site rental revenue is expected to be $6.49B-$6.53B, unchanged from its prior view. Adjusted EBITDA is projected to be $4.40B-$4.44B, compared with its prior guidance of $4.45B-$4.49B.

Crown Castle ( CCI ) stock slipped 0.6% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

"Expected growth in our core business in 2023 remains robust, including 5% tower organic growth, 10,000 small cell node deployments and returning to 3% fiber solutions growth by the end of the year," said Crown Castle ( CCI ) CEO Jay Brown.

Longer term, customers are expected to spend more to meet the significant increase in mobile data demand in the U.S, he added. "We have visibility to continued growth in our core business, with 75% of our expected 5% annual tower organic growth contracted through 2027 when normalized for the previously disclosed legacy Sprint rationalization in 2025."

Q2 adjusted FFO per share of $2.05, beating the average analyst estimate of $2.01, rose from $1.91 in Q1 2023 and from $1.80 in Q2 2022. Net revenue of $1.87B, squeaking past the $1.86B consensus, grew from $1.77B in the prior quarter and from $1.73B in the year-ago quarter.

Site rental revenue of $1.73B, easily beating the Visible Alpha consensus of $1.68B, rose from $1.62B in the previous quarter and from $1.57B in the year-ago period.

Adjusted EBITDA advanced to $1.19B from $1.10B in the prior quarter and from $1.08B a year ago.

Conference call on July 20 at 10:30 AM ET.

More on Crown Castle:

• Crown Castle's previous quarterly income statements
• American Tower rated Outperform at BMO, Crown Castle gets bear rating
• High Yield Blue-Chip REITs on Sale: Realty Income and Crown Castle
• Crown Castle: Small Cells Remain an Opportunity But Headwinds Persist
• Transcript of Crown Castle's Nareit REITweek presentation

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