CCI US S&P 500Russell 1000 Earnings call · transcribed from the recording
Crown Castle (CCI) · Q3 2026 results and valuation
Share price: $89.06 · 2026-11-11
Crown Castle owns, operates, and leases communications infrastructure, including towers and other structures, across the United States. The company provides space and capacity to wireless carriers and other tenants through long-term contracts. It also offers site development services such as site acquisition, engineering, and permitting. Source: 10-K annual report (2026-02-23)
Results Q3 2026 vs Q2 2026 · previous quarter · published 21 Oct 2026 and 22 Jul 2026
Management sounded about as positive as a typical company call, in its script and in answers to analysts.
1 · Numbers
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No financial figures for this pair
Outlook given
2 · How management spoke
Typical
More upbeat than 50% of company calls
Answers to analysts: restrained, in line with the script.
Similar to last call.
3 · What stood out
Figure
Crown Castle also remains on track to deliver 2.1 billion of AFFO at the midpoint across the second half of 2026 and first half of 2027.
Valuation
Is Crown Castle undervalued?
Reverse DCF. Free cash flow from the last full fiscal year (2025-12-31), grown for 10 years, discounted back, plus a terminal value. “Implied growth” is the rate the current price assumes.
At −15.2% growth a year (3-year revenue growth), the model's fair value is $10.92 a share — the stock trades 715% above it. Today's price assumes 4.4% growth a year.
Current price
$89.06
close of 2026-11-11
Market implies growth of iThe yearly free-cash-flow growth, for the next 10 years, that today’s share price already assumes. If you believe the company grows faster than this, the stock is cheap under this model; slower, and it is expensive.
+4.4% for 10 yrs
Fair value / share
$10.92
Buy below
$8.19
Price vs fair value
Overvalued >200%
Price vs buy-below price
Overvalued >200%
Read between the lines
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Guidance
Turning to page four, Crown Castle is increasing its full-year 2026 outlook by 20 million for site rental revenues, 25 million for adjusted EBITDA and 5 million for AFFO.
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Guidance
In 2026, Crown Castle expects to purchase more than 400 ground leases, more than double the number completed in 2025.
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Guidance
Crown Castle is increasing its outlook for discretionary capex by $40 million to $240 million to reflect the higher volume of ground lease buyouts it expects to complete in 2026.
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Figure
These actions resulted in $65 million of annualized run rate operating cost savings.
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Key theme
Crown Castle continues to expect 2026 to mark the low point for organic growth.
4 more
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Figure
Crown Castle is paying $275 million to acquire a residual economic interest on the revenue side, and that's what it is.
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Figure
Just as a sampling, what Crown Castle found across like 25 sites that it justs recently completed, what it found out was across those 25 sites, there would be an opportunity to bring up to 100 megawatts in aggregate across those 25 sites.
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Key theme
Crown Castle resolved a longstanding commercial issue in the quarter with one of its largest customers that advances its strategic relationship and positions us for future growth opportunities.
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Key theme
Crown Castle continues to see momentum in edge compute infrastructure as demand for storage and compute continues to accelerate while many large data center deployments face multi-year construction and power delivery delays.
Tone
How upbeat the language was, compared with other companiesiTone counts positive minus negative finance words, adjusted for length. Executives mostly speak positively, so the labels compare each call with every company's latest call: “typical” is the middle third, “very upbeat” the top tenth, “cautious” the bottom tenth.. Dot: Q3 2026. Ring: Q2 2026.
Script and answers carried a similar tone, so the script's message held up under questioning.
Sentences that drove the tone
“First, at the beginning of the year, we took decisive actions to align our cost structure with the current business model while preserving our ability to support customers, deliver best-in-class...”
“Second, we launched an enterprise-wide transformation program to create a more efficient and scalable operating model that supports our long-term growth objectives.”
“As I reflect on my first year at Crown Castle as CEO, I am pleased with the meaningful progress we have made to sharpen our strategic focus, simplify the business,...”
Full figures
USD · SEC EDGAR XBRL (10-Q, period end 2026-06-30)
| Metric | Q3 2026not yet filed | Q2 2026period end 2026-06-30 | Change | Q3 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | — | 1.01B | 1.07B | ||
| Gross profit | — | 989.0M | 1.04B | ||
| Operating income | — | 470.0M | 525.0M | ||
| Net income | — | 94.0M | 323.0M | ||
| EPS | — | 0.22 | 0.74 | ||
| P/E today 46.9 | — | 38.4 | — | 12-mo loss | — |
Topics
Most discussed now
- New Crown Castle launched an enterprise-wide transformation program to create a more efficient and scalable operating model that supports its…
- To aid the discussion, Crown Castle has posted supplemental materials in the investor section of its website at crowncastle.com that will...
- About the opportunity of 6G and the fact that the FCC and administration has made it a priority to earmark...
Faded since Q2 2026
- Fading Crown Castle is investing in systems that streamline and automate processes, enabling its teammates to make better and faster business...
- Fading Crown Castle now expects to drive additional cost savings this year as it continues to drive operational excellence.
- Fading Quarter organic growth increases to 4.2% if DISH revenues are excluded from prior year's site rental billings.
Latest announcements
Official filings, newest first. Summaries are generated from each filing and its attachment; every figure is checked against the source.
- Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
- Results of operations; Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
Crown Castle reported third-quarter 2026 site rental revenues of $966 million, a 5% decrease from $1,012 million in the third quarter of 2025.
- Director or officer change; Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
Crown Castle announced that Sunit Patel will retire as CFO on March 31, 2027, and Kris Hinson will succeed him as CFO on April 1, 2027, while Cathy Piche will step down as COO on September 23, 2026.
- Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
Crown Castle declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.0625 per common share, payable on September 30, 2026.
- Results of operations; Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
Crown Castle reported Q2 2026 site rental revenues of $967 million, a 4% decrease from $1,008 million in Q2 2025, and AFFO of $488 million, up 10% year over year.
- Shareholder vote results · SEC 8-K · routine
- Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
Crown Castle declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.0625 per common share, payable on June 30, 2026.
- Material agreement; Agreement terminated; New financial obligation · SEC 8-K
Balance sheet & ownership
From SEC filings; short interest is FINRA data via Yahoo. Collected 2026-11-08.
Cash & runway
Cash & equivalents
$133.0M
2026-09-30
Implied runway
—
operating cash flow positive over the TTM window
Dilution
weighted-average basic shares, per quarter. Change: -2.1% YoY, -1.6% QoQ.
| Quarter | Shares |
|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 435.0M |
| Q2 2025 | 435.0M |
| Q3 2025 | 435.0M |
| Q1 2026 | 436.0M |
| Q2 2026 | 433.0M |
| Q3 2026 | 426.0M |
Shares outstanding: 425.5M (2026-11-02)
Insider transactions
Form 4 open-market trades (codes S/P), trailing 12 months. 32 filings parsed.
Sold by insiders
11.0K shares
$927.9K · 4 transactions
Bought by insiders
820 shares
$74.0K · 1 transactions
Net direction
net selling