Crown Castle’s fiber exit creates a cleaner tower platform, offering a potential re-rating from $76.20 if carrier growth and ROIC recover as expected.
Overview
Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) is becoming a pure-play U.S. wireless tower REIT after closing the sale of its Fiber Solutions and Small Cell businesses on May 1, 2026, generating $8.4 billion of net cash proceeds. The simplified portfolio contains approximately 40,000 macro towers and derives about 95% of recurring net revenue from long-term site rentals, primarily with T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, which together represent roughly 90% of site rental revenue. **The strategic pivot removes the capital-intensive fiber business that depressed ROIC to 6%–7% and is expected to support approximately 11% ROIC through 2034.** Q2 2026 revenue was $1.01 billion, adjusted EPS was $0.69, AFFO rose 10% to $488 million, and AFFO per share increased 11% to $1.13. Full-year 2026 AFFO guidance was raised to $1.975 billion and organic tower growth to 3.4%, although site rental revenue declined 4% year over year because of Sprint and DISH churn. At $76.20, the stock is below its moving averages, but the five-year probability-weighted target is $100.65, with re-rating dependent on tower growth, debt reduction, and carrier spending recovery.