For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. Not only can it impact your investment portfolio, but it can also help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

Another factor that can influence investors is FOMO, or the fear of missing out, especially with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Crown Castle (CCI Quick QuoteCCI - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to CCI for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Crown Castle's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Crown Castle's main business drivers.

Houston-based Crown Castle International Corp. is a leading independent operator of wireless communication towers in the United States. The company is engaged in ownership, management and leasing of more than 40,000 cell towers and around 80,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells, and fiber solutions spread across key markets in the nation.

On Sep 9, 2013, the board of directors of Crown Castle approved the steps needed to reorganize the company to qualify as a real estate investment trust (REIT) for tax purposes. Crown Castle became a REIT on Jan 1, 2014.

The company's operating segment consists of towers (70% of site-rental revenues in 2020) and fiber (30%).

Crown Castle reports revenues under:

• Site Rental (91% of net revenues in 2020): The company generates site-rental revenues from its core business by entering long-term tenant contracts in various forms, including lease, licensing, sublease and service agreements with its tenants, for space or capacity at its shared communications infrastructures.
   
• Services and Other (9%): Revenues are generated by offering certain services primarily relating to its towers segment, consisting of site-development and installation services.

Importantly, as of Dec 31, 2020, three major U.S. wireless carriers — Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile — contributed 76% of the REIT's 2020 site-rental revenues.

Note: All EPS numbers presented in this report represent funds from operations (“FFO”) per share. FFO, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.

Bottom Line

Putting together a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of research, patience, and a little bit of risk. For Crown Castle, if you bought shares a decade ago, you're likely feeling really good about your investment today.

A $1000 investment made in April 2011 would be worth $4,132.29, or a gain of 313.23%, as of April 14, 2021, according to our calculations. This return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.

The S&P 500 rose 215.09% and the price of gold increased 13.64% over the same time frame in comparison.

Looking ahead, analysts are expecting more upside for CCI.

Crown Castle’s portfolio of towers has a significant presence in the top 100 basic trading areas ("BTAs"). This along with the ability to offer a holistic network solution with towers, fiber and small cells provides the company with a competitive edge over peers. Going forward, positive demand trends in the wireless market will propel leasing for the company’s towers. In fact, Crown Castle has signed new tower and small cell lease agreements with carriers as they continue to roll out their 5G networks. However, shares of the company have underperformed the industry in the past year. Also, customer concentration is very high for Crown Castle and loss of any customer or consolidation among them is likely to hinder its revenue growth. Moreover, a highly-leveraged balance sheet limits its ability to withstand any credit crisis.

Over the past four weeks, shares have rallied 9.90%, and there have been 2 higher earnings estimate revisions in the past two months for fiscal 2021 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.