Crown Castle Inc (NYSE:CCI) stock fell 5.48% (As on October 19, 11:31:58 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company posted lower than expected results for the third quarter of FY 23. During the third quarter, CCI’s site-rental revenues came in at $1.58 billion, marginally up from the prior-year quarter. The organic contribution of $53 million to the site rental billings reflected 3.9% growth and was not materially impacted by the Sprint Cancellations. Our estimate for site-rental revenues was pegged at $1.57 billion. On the other hand, services and other revenues plunged 49.4% year over year to $90 million. Zacks estimated the metric at $158.6 million. The company reported capital expenditures of $347 million in the quarter. This comprised discretionary capital expenditures of $325 million and sustaining capital expenditures of $22 million. Discretionary capital expenditures primarily attributable to Fiber were around $273 million, and that to Towers was roughly $47 million. Crown Castle exited the third quarter of 2023 with cash and cash equivalents of $117 million, down from $276 million reported as of Jun 30, 2023. The debt and other long-term obligations aggregated $21.9 billion as of Sep 30, 2023, increasing 1.4% sequentially.

CCI in the third quarter of FY 23 has reported the adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share of $1.77, missing the analysts’ estimates for the AFFO per share of $1.78. The company had reported 4.5 percent decline in the adjusted revenue to $1.67 billion in the third quarter of FY 23, missing the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $1.71 billion, according to the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Crown Castle maintained its guidance for 2023 AFFO per share in the range of $7.50-$7.58. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $7.53, which is within the guided range.

The company reiterated its expectations for site rental revenues between $6.488 billion and $6.533 billion, and adjusted EBITDA in the band of $4.399-$4.444 billion.

CCI also issued its guidance for 2024. It expects AFFO per share in the range of $6.85 to $6.97. The Zacks Consensus Estimate stands at $7.21. Site rental revenues are projected between $6.347 billion and $6.392 billion, while adjusted EBITDA is estimated to be in the band of $4.138-$4.188 billion.

The company expects full year 2024 organic growth excluding the impact of Sprint Cancellations of 4.5% from towers, 13% from small cells, based on plans to deliver approximately 14,000 small cell nodes, and 3% from fiber solutions to generate consolidated organic revenue growth of 5%.