Real estate investment trust Crown Castle International Corp (CCI) will raise its quarterly dividend by 7.1 percent to $1.125 per share in the fourth quarter of 2018. The new annual dividend yields 4.2% at a stock price of $106.79 for the wireless infrastructure provider.

The quarterly dividend will be payable on December 31, 2018 to common stockholders of record at the close of business on December 14, 2018. The ex-date for this next dividend of 112.5 cents is December 13.

"We delivered another terrific quarter of results in the third quarter and increased our annualized common stock dividend by 7% to $4.50 per share based on accelerating leasing activity," stated Jay Brown, Crown Castle's Chief Executive Officer. "Over the past two decades, we have built and acquired an unmatched portfolio of more than 40,000 towers and 65,000 route miles of dense, high capacity fiber in the top U.S. markets, where we see the greatest long-term demand from multiple customers.  We believe our ability to offer towers, small cells and fiber solutions, which are all integral components of communications networks and are shared among multiple tenants, provides us the best opportunity to generate significant growth while delivering high returns for our shareholders.  Further, we believe that the U.S. represents the best market in the world for communications infrastructure ownership and we are pursuing that compelling opportunity with our comprehensive offering.  With the positive momentum we continue to see in our towers and fiber segments, we remain dedicated to investing in our business to generate future growth while delivering dividend per share growth of 7% to 8% per year."

Crown Castle International Corp. is a real estate investment trust (REIT), which owns, operates and leases shared wireless infrastructure (multitenant communications real estate). The Company's segments include towers and small cells. The small cells segment also offers fiber-based solutions. Crown Castle has operations in the United States and Puerto Rico.