Crown Castle International Corp (CCI) will raise its quarterly dividend by 10.5 percent in 2021. This follows a dividend hike of 10.8 percent to $1.33 per share last year by the communications REIT.

The next quarterly dividend of $1.47 per share is payable on December 31, 2021 to common stockholders of record at the close of business on December 15, 2021. A new annual rate of $5.88 per share yields 3.4% at a stock price of $170.29.

Crown Castle International will now pay an estimated $2.54 billion in dividends to shareholders annually. This is only the third double digit dividend hike announced by the company in the last six years, trailing bigger rival American Tower.

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. Crown Castle owns, operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers and approximately 80,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solutions across every major U.S. market.  The company has paid a dividend to shareholders every year since 2014