Better High-Yield Dividend Stock: Crown Castle vs. Healthpeak

Key Takeaways

• Crown Castle yields 5.4%, and Healthpeak Properties yields 6.7%, and both raised parts of their 2026 outlooks with their second-quarter results.
• Crown Castle’s dividend used 109% of its AFFO in fiscal 2025, and consensus puts that at 93% for fiscal 2026.
• Healthpeak’s AFFO payout ratio was 72% in fiscal 2025 and is 78% on fiscal 2026 consensus, but its interest coverage is the thinner of the two at 1.5x.
• Healthpeak trades at 12x forward AFFO, and Crown Castle trades at 16x.

Crown Castle (CCI) and Healthpeak Properties (DOC) both nudged up their 2026 outlooks with their second-quarter results this summer.

Neither company comes to this with a clean record, since both have cut their dividends before. Crown Castle’s cut is the more recent, and it was a sizable one. The payout slid from $6.26 a share in fiscal 2024 to $4.75 in fiscal 2025, and it now runs at $1.0625 a quarter, or $4.25 a year. Healthpeak’s cuts came earlier, and there were two of them, taking the dividend from $2.10 a share in fiscal 2016 to $1.48 in fiscal 2017, and then down to $1.20 in fiscal 2021.

So which high-yield dividend is the better one to own now?

Source: TIKR, Oct. 9, 2026; prices at the Oct. 9 close.

Crown Castle is still growing into its dividend

Crown Castle’s towers are bringing in less. Site rental revenues fell 4% to $967 million in Q2 2026, from $1,008 million in Q2 2025, as DISH terminations and Sprint cancellations worked through. Even so, AFFO rose to $1.13 a share from $1.02, and management expects $4.53 to $4.65 a share for 2026. That outlook already counts $220 million of DISH non-renewals, and Crown Castle is claiming more than $3.5 billion in DISH’s bankruptcy, where no plan can be confirmed before Dec. 2.

The dividend still leans hard on that AFFO. The payout ratio climbed from 73% in fiscal 2020 to 90% in fiscal 2024, then AFFO fell to $4.36 a share in fiscal 2025, below the $4.75 the company paid out…

…which works out to an uncovered 109%. On fiscal 2026 consensus, $4.58 of AFFO against $4.25 of dividends, the ratio is a tight 93%. Crown Castle plans to hold the dividend at $4.25 until that ratio is down to 75% to 80%.

CEO Christian Hillabrant calls the dividend “sacrosanct.” It gets funded first, before capex, and spare cash goes to keeping leverage in a 6x-to-6.5x range. At 6.51x net debt to EBITDA, Crown Castle sits at the top of that range.

Its stock jumped 15.6% on Oct. 9, to $79.64, after SpaceX agreed on Oct. 8 to buy nationwide spectrum for its Starlink phone service, which may need towers. SpaceX hasn’t signed a lease, and the 5.4% yield is at the new price.

Healthpeak has rebuilt its cushion

Healthpeak’s cuts are further back, and its coverage has improved every year since. Its AFFO payout ratio fell from 102% in fiscal 2020 to 72% in fiscal 2025. Over that stretch, AFFO rose from $1.35 a share in fiscal 2021 to $1.69 in fiscal 2025, while the dividend went from $1.20 to $1.22…

That 72% is a comfortable cushion. Consensus keeps the ratio at 78% for fiscal 2026, with $1.57 of AFFO against $1.23 of dividends.

The business behind it is a mixed picture. Janus Living, its senior housing arm, is doing the heavy lifting, with revenue up 45% and Adjusted EBITDA up 34% in the second quarter of 2026 from a year earlier. The lab side is the soft spot, where same-store Adjusted NOI slipped 3.2% over the same stretch. Even so, management nudged its 2026 FFO as Adjusted guidance up by $0.02 at the midpoint, to a range of $1.73 to $1.77 a share.

CEO Scott Brinker is keeping debt in check: “This is not the right environment to have elevated leverage.” The weak spot is interest coverage. EBIT covers interest a thin 1.49x, against 2.13x at Crown Castle.

So which dividend wins?

Ultimately, I’d go with Healthpeak as the better high-yield dividend stock. It pays more, 6.7% against Crown Castle’s 5.4%, and it covers that dividend with room to spare: 72% of AFFO in fiscal 2025, against 109% at Crown Castle.

Put $10,000 into each, and Healthpeak sends you $670 a year today, against $540 from Crown Castle. Now let each dividend keep moving at its current pace. Healthpeak’s rose 1.7% in fiscal 2025, while Crown Castle’s quarterly payment is unchanged from a year ago. Run that out ten years and Healthpeak pays about $777 in year 10, against about $540 from Crown Castle, so Crown Castle never catches up.

You also pay less for Healthpeak’s AFFO: 12.2x forward, against 16.2x for Crown Castle after its jump. That’s below Healthpeak’s own five-year average of 14.7x…

…though still above the 9.9x low it hit on Dec. 23, 2025.

None of this means Crown Castle’s dividend is in trouble. Management’s guidance already covers the $4.25 payout, and the company treats it as untouchable. Still, Healthpeak gives you a bigger check today, with more than a quarter of its AFFO left over after paying it, and at a lower price.

Of course, Healthpeak’s lab buildings are still filling back up. Lab occupancy, at 78.5% in Q2 2026, is the number to watch on its next report.

So what is Healthpeak stock actually worth?

TIKR lets you forecast the future price of any stock in less than a minute. Just enter a few assumptions into TIKR’s valuation model and see what Healthpeak could be worth. Start from Wall Street consensus estimates, or adjust the inputs to reflect your own view of the business. It’s free to use.

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Disclaimer:

Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!