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What's in Store for Crown Castle Stock This Earnings Season?

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Crown Castle Inc. (CCI - Free Report) is scheduled to release its third-quarter 2024 results on Oct. 16, after the closing bell. In anticipation of the announcement, industry analysts and investors are eager to assess the company's performance and prospects in the current economic climate.

Stay up-to-date with all quarterly releases: See Zacks Earnings Calendar.

In the last reported quarter, this Houston, TX-based real estate investment trust’s (REIT) adjusted funds from operations (FFO) per share lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.8%. Results reflected a fall in net revenues on a year-over-year basis. Higher interest expense on debt obligations and lower contributions from adjusted EBITDA were undermining factors.

Over the preceding four quarters, CCI’s FFO per share surpassed estimates on two occasions and missed in the remaining periods, with the average miss being 0.03%. This is depicted in the graph below:

Crown Castle Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Crown Castle Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Crown Castle Inc. price-eps-surprise | Crown Castle Inc. Quote

 

Let’s see how things have shaped up before this announcement.

Factors at Play

Crown Castle has an unmatched portfolio of wireless communication infrastructure assets in the United States. As wireless data consumption is expected to increase significantly over the next few years, service providers will likely continue their network expansion and densification efforts to meet this incremental demand.

Its healthy balance sheet position is likely to have supported its small cell deployment efforts required to increase the capacity and density of the wireless network for 5G deployment.

However, an expected lower tower activity compared to the early stage of the 5G investment cycle in the to-be-reported quarter is likely to have impacted the company’s performance.

Our estimate for quarterly site rental revenues stands at $1.58 billion, implying a marginal increase year over year.

We estimate revenues from the network services and other segment to decline 41.4% year over year to $52.8 million.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter revenues is pegged at $1.64 billion, indicating a decrease of 1.9% from the year-ago reported number.

Also, high interest expenses are likely to have been a spoilsport for CCI during the to-be-reported quarter. We expect third-quarter 2024 interest expenses and amortization of deferred financing costs to rise 8.5% year over year.

Crown Castle’s activities in the to-be-reported quarter were inadequate to garner analysts’ confidence. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarterly FFO per share remained unchanged at $1.80 over the past month. However, the figure suggests a 1.69% increase from the prior-year quarter’s reported figure.

What Our Quantitative Model Predicts

Our proven model does not conclusively predict a surprise in terms of FFO per share for Crown Castle this season. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy), or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an FFO beat, which is not the case here.

Crown Castle currently has an Earnings ESP of -0.91% and a Zacks Rank of 2. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Stocks That Warrant a Look

Here are three stocks from the broader REIT sector — SL Green Realty (SLG - Free Report) , Highwoods Properties (HIW - Free Report) and Cousins Properties (CUZ - Free Report) — you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to report a surprise this quarter.

SL Green is slated to report quarterly numbers on Oct. 16. SLG has an Earnings ESP of +2.38% and carries a Zacks Rank of 2 presently. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Highwoods Properties, slated to release quarterly numbers on Oct. 22, has an Earnings ESP of +0.47% and carries a Zacks Rank of 3 at present.

Cousins Properties, scheduled to report quarterly numbers on Oct. 24, has an Earnings ESP of +1.12% and carries a Zacks Rank of 3 at present.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.


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