
Motley Fool
A $10,000 Stake in This REIT 10 Years Ago Is Worth $47,000 Now. Here’s Why That Could Happen Again.
Going big into small cell networks may be setting up Crown Castle International (NYSE: CCI) for more years of towering shareholder paybacks. Since its founding in 1994, the real estate investment trust (REIT) has grown into the second-largest provider of cell towers in the industry, leasing a network of more than 40,000 of them across the country to myriad well-heeled customers, including the big wireless carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile US, and Verizon Communications. Along the way, Crown Castle has provided a total return of about 1,360% since going public in 1998, and in the past 10 years alone would have turned a $10,000 investment into $47,500, besting the S&P 500 over that same decade by nearly 25%.