REIT Report Card · August 15, 2026
Crown Castle is the other large tower name, $32.3B, about $327 million a day. The stock is −25.4% over the past year, which is how a 5.59% yield shows up. Net Debt / EBITDA is 8.31x. Start there before you get attached to the income.
| Category | Grade | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| Liquidity | A | Active daily volume for a tower name |
| Balance Sheet | C+ | High debt relative to EBITDA |
| Debt Service | B- | Thinner interest coverage. Financing costs matter more |
| Operating Quality | A- | Strong operating profits |
| Cash Generation | A | A lot of operating cash relative to the stock's value |
| Dividend | A- | A useful yield with solid cash-flow coverage |
| Valuation | B | Priced fully, but not extreme |
| Recent Performance | C | A weak year for the share price |
| Overall | B | A high yield next to a heavy debt load and a down year |
1. Valuation
A buyer is taking the equity and the net debt together. This multiple is the combined price.
At about 20.3x EV / EBITDA, CCI trades at a full but less extreme multiple.
Bottom line: This is a full price, not a distressed one.
2. Leverage
For every $1 of annual EBITDA CCI generates, it has about $8.31 of net debt.
For a REIT, this is usually the first leverage number worth reading.
Bottom line: CCI carries a lot of debt relative to EBITDA, so refinancing and rates matter more.
3. Debt Exposure
About 41% of CCI's total enterprise value is net debt.
That gives equity investors a thinner equity cushion than lower-debt peers.
Bottom line: A large net-debt share of EV means equity holders have less of a cushion.
4. Interest Protection
CCI generates about 2.85x of EBITDA for every $1 of estimated interest.
Higher coverage usually means a REIT can absorb higher rates, refinancing costs, or a soft patch in the properties more easily.
Bottom line: Coverage is thin. Higher rates or weaker EBITDA would show up quickly.
5. Operating Profitability
CCI turns about 65 cents of every revenue dollar into EBITDA.
Bottom line: The properties and the platform make a lot of money on this measure.
6. Cash Generation
CCI generated operating cash flow equal to about 8.1% of its current equity value.
For every $100 of current equity value, the company generated about $8.10 of trailing operating cash flow.
Bottom line: You're getting a lot of cash relative to the price you're paying.
7. Cash Conversion
About 97% of CCI's EBITDA turned into operating cash flow.
Bottom line: Most of the reported operating earnings are showing up as actual cash.
8. Dividend Safety
On our standardized math, operating cash flow covers CCI's annualized dividend about 1.45x.
CCI generates roughly 1.45x of operating cash flow for every $1.00 of estimated dividends.
Bottom line: The dividend looks covered by operating cash flow, though the margin isn't huge under this conservative method.
9. Dividend Yield
CCI screens more as an income REIT.
Put $10,000 into CCI at the current indicated yield and you'd get about $559 a year if the dividend stays the same.
Bottom line: You can treat CCI as an income holding if you also accept the coverage and sector risks that come with it.
10. Market Liquidity
About $327 million of CCI stock changes hands on an average trading day.
Bottom line: Daily volume of about $327 million is active for an equity REIT.
If you put $10,000 into CCI today, based on the numbers in this report:
CCI has $23.40B of total debt against $1.04B of cash (8.31x net debt / EBITDA). Interest coverage of 2.9x is not a full answer to that load.
At 20.3x EV / EBITDA, the valuation is neither a bargain nor a blow-off.
OCF dividend coverage is 1.45x and the indicated yield is 5.59%. The dividend looks supported, but the margin isn't huge, and capex definitions still matter.
Average daily dollar volume is $326.6M, active enough for most individual-sized trades.
Crown Castle's 5.59% yield is what draws the eye. 8.31x Net Debt / EBITDA and 2.9x interest coverage are what can spoil it.
OCF yield on equity is 8.1%, which is real cash versus the stock. It does not shrink 8.31x of net debt / EBITDA or 2.9x of interest coverage.
Line them up: 20.3x EV / EBITDA, 8.31x net debt / EBITDA, 2.9x interest coverage, 5.6% yield. Income is the draw; the leverage and coverage are the rest of the homework.
| Metric | CCI |
|---|---|
| Market Capitalization | $32.33B |
| Enterprise Value | $54.69B |
| Share Price | $75.98 |
| Revenue (TTM) | $4.16B |
| EBITDA (TTM) | $2.69B |
| EBIT (TTM) | $2.01B |
| Operating Cash Flow (TTM) | $2.62B |
| CapEx (TTM) | $0.22B |
| Cash | $1.04B |
| Total Debt | $23.40B |
| Average Daily $ Volume | $326.6M |
| Daily Equity Turnover | 1.01% |
| EV / EBITDA | 20.33x |
| EBITDA Yield on EV | 4.92% |
| EBITDA Margin | 64.66% |
| Net Debt / EBITDA | 8.31x |
| Net Debt / Market Cap | 69.16% |
| Net Debt / Enterprise Value | 40.88% |
| Debt / Total Capital | 41.99% |
| Cash / Debt | 4.44% |
| EV Premium to Equity | 69.16% |
| Operating Cash Flow Yield | 8.10% |
| OCF / EBITDA Conversion | 97.40% |
| CapEx / Operating Cash Flow | 8.32% |
| CapEx / Revenue | 5.24% |
| Post-CapEx Cash Yield | 7.43% |
| Dividend / OCF Burden | 0.69x |
| OCF Dividend Coverage | 1.45x |
| Implied Interest / Revenue | 22.68% |
| EBITDA Interest Coverage | 2.85x |
| Reported Interest Coverage (source) | 2.13x |
| Dividend Yield | 5.59% |
| 52-Week Price Change | −25.38% |
| Approx. 1-Year Total Carry | −19.79% |
| Beta (5Y) | 0.97 |
We grade each REIT on several things at once. A cheap multiple next to heavy debt is a different story than a cheap multiple next to a light load.
Financial Strength looks at leverage, how much of the firm is debt, daily trading volume, and whether earnings cover interest.
Operating Quality looks at the EBITDA margin and how much of those earnings show up as cash.
Dividend Quality looks at the indicated yield, whether operating cash flow covers the payout, and how heavy the payout is versus cash.
Valuation is what you pay for the REIT's earnings: enterprise value over EBITDA.
Market Performance looks at last year's share-price change and how much stock trades on an ordinary day.
A hotel and a net-lease REIT will not look the same on these measures, and they should not. Read each name next to peers in the same property type.
Read the full methodology and the grading bands.
The numbers come from trailing financials and market data we pulled for this report. Some ratios we calculate ourselves. They are not always the figures the company highlights.
We use them so these 20 REITs can be lined up on the same math. That does not replace company-reported FFO, AFFO, same-store NOI, occupancy, lease schedules, or NAV.
Source: https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/cci/statistics/
Report date: August 15, 2026
This is for information only. It isn't investment advice, a buy or sell recommendation, or a judgment about whether any of these REITs fit your situation.