By Adriano Marchese

Crown Castle International Corp. said profit rose in the fourth quarter, benefiting from forecast-beating funds from operations in the period.

For the period ended Dec. 31, the cell tower operator said net income rose to $508 million, or $1.17 a share, from $208 million, or 43 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter.

Funds from operations rose to $2.22 a share from $1.36 a share a year ago. On an adjusted basis, FFO was $2.33 a share, up from 1.38 a share a year earlier.

Analysts expected FFO of $1.55 a share, or $1.65 a share on an adjusted basis.

Net revenue rose slightly to $1.49 billion from $1.43 billion a year earlier.

Looking ahead at its dividend growth, the company said that it anticipates a growth of 7% to 8% a year.

"Adding to our long-term growth opportunity, we finished the year with approximately 50,000 small cells on air, and we meaningfully increased our backlog of small cells committed or under construction to approximately 30,000 with the 5G small cell agreement with Verizon we announced today," Chief Executive Jay Brown said.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 27, 2021 16:52 ET (21:52 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024 Click Here for more Crown Castle Charts.
Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024 Click Here for more Crown Castle Charts.