Billboards and Cell Towers Collect Rent From Brands and Carriers, and $120,000 Across These 3 Stocks Pays $5,077 a Year
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A billboard on an interstate and a cell tower on a ridge work the same way. One company owns the structure, and other businesses pay to use it. Advertisers rent the billboard face to reach drivers, and wireless carriers rent space on the tower for their antennas. Both deals produce recurring rent, and three publicly traded landlords pass much of that rent through to shareholders.
Each of the three is a real estate investment trust, or REIT. A REIT owns income-producing property and, in exchange for avoiding corporate income tax, has to pay out at least 90% of its taxable income as dividends. That rule is why REIT yields tend to run high. Owning a $40,000 position in each of these three high-yield names, $120,000 in total, would generate about $5,077 in annual passive income.
Income figures use each company’s latest regular quarterly dividend, annualized, at Nov. 13, 2026 prices. They’ll shift as share prices and dividends change.
Outfront Media Rents Out Subway Walls and Highway Billboards
- Stock #3: Outfront Media (NYSE:OUT)
- Price: $33.55
- Quarterly / Annualized Dividend: $0.33 / $1.32
- Forward Yield: 3.93%
- Shares for $40,000: 1,192.25
- Annual Passive Income: ~$1,574
Outfront sells ad space on static and digital billboards and across transit systems, including a franchise with New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Brands pay for display time, while Outfront pays land rent and transit franchise fees. Third-quarter revenue rose 9.3% to $511.1 million, with transit up 20.4% and billboards up 5.9%, helped by 2026 FIFA World Cup spending.
The quarterly dividend sat at $0.30 through 2023, 2024 and 2025, then rose to $0.33 starting with the September 2026 payment. AFFO, or adjusted funds from operations (the cash-flow measure REITs use instead of earnings), came to $102.9 million in the third quarter. Costs are the main risk. SG&A rose 23.1%, the adjusted OIBDA margin slid to 28.4% from 29.3%, and Outfront doesn’t expect to recover MTA equipment costs. It also paid just $0.10 a quarter in late 2021, when ad demand was weak.
Lamar Advertising Runs the Largest U.S. Digital Billboard Network
- Stock #2: Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR)
- Price: $161.76
- Quarterly / Annualized Dividend: $1.65 / $6.60
- Forward Yield: 4.08%
- Shares for $40,000: 247.28
- Annual Passive Income: ~$1,632
Lamar owns more than 360,000 displays across the U.S. and Canada, including over 5,900[1] digital billboards, and rents them to local businesses and national brands. Third-quarter AFFO rose 10.1% to $249.3 million[1], or $2.41 per share. Its chief executive said, “Sales growth accelerated in the third quarter, buoyed by demand from national customers, our digital platform and political spend.”[1]
Lamar raised its 2026 diluted AFFO guidance to $8.87 to $8.97[1] per share, well above the annualized dividend. It has typically paid a larger fourth-quarter dividend, such as $1.80 in December 2025, and dividends with ex-dates in the trailing year amounted to $6.65 per share. The annualized figure doesn’t count any larger year-end payout. Ad budgets are the risk: political spending can drop after election years, and the payout fell to $0.50 a quarter in 2020.
Crown Castle Collects Tower Rent From the Big Three Carriers
- Stock #1: Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI)
- Price: $90.85
- Quarterly / Annualized Dividend: $1.0625 / $4.25
- Forward Yield: 4.68%
- Shares for $40,000: 440.29
- Annual Passive Income: ~$1,871
Crown Castle leases space on about 40,000 U.S. towers to carriers under long-term contracts. On May 1, 2026, it sold its fiber and small cell businesses to EQT and Zayo for $8.4 billion in net proceeds. That cash repaid more than $7 billion of debt and funded $1.043 billion[2] in buybacks.
The dividend was reset from $1.565 per share to $1.0625, first paid on June 30, 2025, and has held there since. Third-quarter AFFO per share rose 11% to $1.24[2] as interest expense fell, and 2026 guidance of $4.54 to $4.66 per share sits above the annualized dividend. Concentration is the risk: T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon produce 93%[2] of site rental revenue, and DISH terminations cut quarterly revenue by $61 million. We compared the three tower REITs on payouts on Oct. 26.
Billboard and Tower Income at a Glance
| Name | Forward Yield | Annual Dividend Income |
|---|---|---|
| Outfront Media | 3.93% | $1,574 |
| Lamar Advertising | 4.08% | $1,632 |
| Crown Castle | 4.68% | $1,871 |
| Total | 4.23% | $5,077 |
Combined, these 3 positions generate $5,077 in annual passive income on a $120,000 investment, a blended yield of 4.23%. Crown Castle brings $1,871, Lamar adds $1,632, and Outfront rounds out the group with $1,574.
Rent collected from businesses can work like a steady paycheck, as long as the tenants keep needing the space. Advertisers still want to reach people on highways and subway platforms, and carriers still need antennas as data use grows. If either needs to contract, rent and dividends tend to contract with it.
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David Beren has been a Flywheel Publishing contributor since 2022. Writing for 24/7 Wall St. since 2023, David loves to write about topics of all shapes and sizes. As a technology expert, David focuses heavily on consumer electronics brands, automobiles, and general technology. He has previously written for LifeWire, formerly About.com. As a part-time freelance writer, David’s “day job” has been working on and leading social media for multiple Fortune 100 brands. David loves the flexibility of this field and its ability to reach customers exactly where they like to spend their time. Additionally, David previously published his own blog, TmoNews.com, which reached 3 million readers in its first year. In addition to freelance and social media work, David loves to spend time with his family and children and relive the glory days of video game consoles by playing any retro game console he can get his hands on.
