Key Takeaways
- Edison International yields 6.5% and Crown Castle yields 5.4%, after Crown Castle’s dividends per share fell from $6.26 in fiscal 2024 to $4.75 in fiscal 2025.
- Edison paid out 51% of normalized EPS in fiscal 2025 and is expected to pay out 57% on fiscal 2026 consensus.
- Crown Castle’s AFFO payout ratio was 109% in fiscal 2025 and is expected to be 93% on fiscal 2026 consensus, as AFFO per share recovers.
- Edison’s biggest risk is wildfire liability: California’s bill to limit it died on Aug. 31, and Fitch has warned of downgrades.
Edison International (EIX) yields 6.5% today, and Crown Castle (CCI) yields 5.4%. Yields that high usually come with a catch.
For Edison, the catch is California’s wildfires. Its utility, Southern California Edison (SCE), is still settling claims from the Eaton Fire. Crown Castle’s catch is the dividend itself: its dividends per share fell from $6.26 in fiscal 2024 to $4.75 in fiscal 2025.
So which is the better high-yield dividend stock today?
| Metric | Edison International (EIX) | Crown Castle (CCI) |
|---|---|---|
| Dividend yield | 6.5% | 5.4% |
| Annual dividend | $3.51 a share | $4.25 a share |
| Dividend growth, fiscal 2020–2025 | 5.4% a year | -0.7% a year |
| Payout ratio, fiscal 2025 | 51% of normalized EPS | 109% of AFFO |
| Payout ratio, fiscal 2026 consensus | 57% of normalized EPS | 93% of AFFO |
| Net debt/EBITDA (LTM) | 4.0x | 6.51x |
| Interest coverage (LTM) | 3.08x | 2.13x |
Edison’s dividend has room to spare
Edison’s dividend is well-covered. In fiscal 2025 it paid out a comfortable 51% of normalized EPS. On fiscal 2026 consensus that ratio rises to 57%, because EPS is expected to come down from an unusually strong 2025. On July 30, management said it still expects core EPS to grow 5% to 7% a year from 2025 to 2030.
The record shows the same discipline.
Dividends per share rose every year on the chart, from $1.98 in fiscal 2016 to $3.36 in fiscal 2025. Over that stretch, the payout ratio stayed between 50% and 64%. The risk is wildfires. SCE had recorded $1.6 billion of Eaton Fire settlement losses by June 30, and management can’t yet estimate the rest. CEO Pedro Pizarro warned that if there’s “insufficient action” on wildfire legislation in 2026, credit rating downgrades are a “strong likelihood.” On Aug. 4, the Los Angeles County Fire Department found that arcing on an out-of-service SCE tower started the fire. On Aug. 31, the bill died without a vote, and Edison’s stock fell 23% that day. On Sept. 16, Fitch moved its outlook to negative, warning that “future rating downgrades are likely.”
Crown Castle is still growing back into its dividend
Edison’s dividend has kept climbing, but Crown Castle’s just reset. Its AFFO payout ratio hit a risky 109% in fiscal 2025, so the dividend outran the cash behind it.
AFFO per share climbed from $4.72 in fiscal 2016 to $7.55 in fiscal 2023, then fell to $4.36 in fiscal 2025. Dividends per share came down from $6.26 in fiscal 2024 to $4.75 in fiscal 2025. So the 5-year rate of -0.7% a year mostly reflects the reset, and the dividend is flat for now.
AFFO is recovering. AFFO per share rose 10% to $1.13 in the second quarter of 2026. Fiscal 2026 consensus of $4.58 sits inside management’s guidance of $4.53 to $4.65, which works out to a tight 93% payout ratio. CEO Christian Hillabrant calls the dividend “sacrosanct.” CFO Sunit Patel, who retires at the end of March 2027, expects the payout ratio to get back within the company’s target range “over the next couple of years or so.”
Crown Castle repaid more than $7 billion of debt after selling its fiber business. Even so, it still carries 6.51x net debt to EBITDA, against Edison’s 4.0x. And site rental revenues fell 4% in the second quarter of 2026 as DISH terminations and Sprint cancellations hit. One new hope: SpaceX’s Oct. 8 spectrum deal sent Crown Castle’s stock up 15.6% on Oct. 9, to $79.64, on the idea that its satellites will still need towers, though SpaceX hasn’t signed a lease.
So which dividend wins?
Edison International is the better high-yield dividend stock. It pays the bigger yield, it covers that yield with room to spare, and it has raised its dividend every year on its chart. Crown Castle, meanwhile, is still working its payout ratio back down.
In dollars, $10,000 in Edison pays $650 a year today. At its 5-year growth rate, that grows to about $1,046 in year 10, a 10.5% yield on your original cash. The same $10,000 in Crown Castle pays $540 today, and with its dividend flat, it never catches up.
You also get Edison at a discount.
Edison trades at 9.0x forward earnings, against a 13.0x average over the last five years. That gap is the market pricing in the wildfire risk.
This isn’t to say Crown Castle’s dividend is in trouble. AFFO is growing again, management calls the dividend sacrosanct, and the payout ratio is on track to get back within its target range. It’s just that Edison already pays more, covers its dividend better and keeps raising it.
Of course, Edison’s case now leans on Sacramento trying again. Without a fix, the downgrades Pizarro warned about get more likely, and Edison’s first estimate of what the Eaton Fire will cost is still to come.
So what is Edison International stock actually worth?
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