Crown Castle Inc. CCI reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share of $1.13, up 10.8% year over year. The metric surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.00 by 13%.
Results reflected a rise in AFFO per share, driven by a decrease in interest expense and an increase in interest income resulting from the use of proceeds from the sale of its Fiber and Small Cell businesses.
Quarterly revenues of $1.01 billion, declined 4.9% from the prior-year period but beat the consensus estimate by 1.52%. The decrease was due to lower site rental revenues, services and other revenues.
CCI Site Rental Results Reflect Tenant Headwinds
Site rental revenues were $967 million, down 4.1% year over year. The decline reflected a $49 million impact from DISH terminations, $5 million from Sprint cancellations and a $25 million reduction in straight-lined revenues and the amortization of prepaid rent.
Organic Contribution to Site Rental Billings, adjusted for DISH terminations and Sprint cancellations, totaled $38 million, representing 3.9% growth. The metric included $15 million from core leasing activity, $25 million from escalators, a $7 million drag from non-renewals and a $5 million increase in other billings.
CCI's EBITDA Declines on Lower Rental Revenues
Adjusted EBITDA came in at $675 million, down 4.3% from $705 million in the prior-year quarter. Management attributed the decrease mainly to the lower contribution from site rental revenues.
Interest expense and the amortization of deferred financing costs declined to $208 million from $243 million. Net income fell to $94 million from $291 million.
CCI Capital Spending Rises on Land Purchases
Capital expenditures from continuing operations totaled $59 million, up 47.5% year over year. The total included $52 million of discretionary capital expenditures and $7 million of sustaining capital expenditures.
The increase was mainly driven by a $20 million rise in land capital expenditures. Crown Castle continues to prioritize land ownership under its towers to improve margins, strengthen control of its assets and shorten customer delivery times.
CCI Maintains a Stronger Post-Sale Balance Sheet
Crown Castle ended the quarter with 100% fixed-rate debt and a weighted-average debt maturity of approximately seven years. The company had around $4.5 billion available under its revolving credit facility.
CCI completed the sale of its fiber and small-cell businesses on May 1, receiving $8.4 billion in net proceeds. Following the transaction, the company completed $1 billion of share repurchases and repaid more than $7 billion of debt.
CCI Raises Its 2026 AFFO Outlook
Crown Castle raised the midpoint of its full-year 2026 AFFO outlook by $5 million. The company now expects AFFO between $1.95 billion and $2.00 billion compared with its previous range of $1.945-$1.995 billion. AFFO per share is projected between $4.53 and $4.65. The Zacks Consensus Estimate presently is pinned at $4.43.
The site rental revenue outlook was raised by $5 million to a range of $3.833-$3.878 billion. Adjusted EBITDA guidance was maintained between $2.665 billion and $2.715 billion.
Crown Castle currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Crown Castle Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Crown Castle Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Crown Castle Inc. Quote
Performance of Other REITs
Prologis, Inc. PLD reported second-quarter 2026 core funds from operations (FFO) per share of $1.63, up from $1.46 in the year-ago quarter. The figure surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.53 by 6.54%.
Rental revenues totaled $2.18 billion, up 7.5% year over year. The top line also exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.14 billion with a 1.68% surprise, supported by continued rent growth and resilient operating fundamentals. PLD currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.
Upcoming Earnings Release
We now look forward to the earnings release of other REITs, such as W.P. Carey WPC, which is slated to report on July 28, 2026.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for W.P. Carey’s second-quarter 2026 FFO per share is pegged at $1.31, which suggests a year-over-year increase of 2.3%. W.P. Carey currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.
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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