Crown Castle International Corp Stock Hold Recommendation Reiterated (CCI)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Crown Castle International (NYSE:CCI) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a hold with a ratings score of C. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, impressive record of earnings per share growth and compelling growth in net income. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including premium valuation and generally poor debt management.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• CCI's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 5.9%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 10.6%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.
• CROWN CASTLE INTL CORP has improved earnings per share by 41.7% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. This trend suggests that the performance of the business is improving. During the past fiscal year, CROWN CASTLE INTL CORP turned its bottom line around by earning $0.52 versus -$1.16 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($0.81 versus $0.52).
• The gross profit margin for CROWN CASTLE INTL CORP is currently very high, coming in at 72.00%. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the strong results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 9.10% trails the industry average.
• The debt-to-equity ratio is very high at 3.08 and currently higher than the industry average, implying that there is very poor management of debt levels within the company. Despite the company's weak debt-to-equity ratio, the company has managed to keep a very strong quick ratio of 3.36, which shows the ability to cover short-term cash needs.

Crown Castle International Corp., together with is subsidiaries, owns, operates, and leases shared wireless infrastructure primarily in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Australia. The company has a P/E ratio of 103.8, equal to the average telecommunications industry P/E ratioand above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Crown Castle International has a market cap of $17.34 billion and is part of the technology sector and telecommunications industry. Shares are up 32.1% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

You can view the full Crown Castle International Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

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