SBA Communications (SBAC) Competitors

Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) and SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, dividends, community ranking, profitability, valuation and risk.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor CCI or SBAC?

SBA Communications received 70 more outperform votes than Crown Castle when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 67.63% of users gave Crown Castle an outperform vote while only 67.07% of users gave SBA Communications an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Crown Castle	Outperform Votes 769 67.63%	Underperform Votes 368 32.37%
SBA Communications	Outperform Votes 839 67.07%	Underperform Votes 412 32.93%

Do analysts rate CCI or SBAC?

Crown Castle currently has a consensus price target of $112.71, indicating a potential upside of 12.74%. SBA Communications has a consensus price target of $253.43, indicating a potential upside of 11.12%. Given Crown Castle's higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Crown Castle is more favorable than SBA Communications.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crown Castle	0 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	3 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.65
SBA Communications	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.73

Is CCI or SBAC a better dividend stock?

Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $4.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. SBA Communications pays an annual dividend of $4.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Crown Castle pays out -39.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SBA Communications pays out 60.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. SBA Communications has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years. Crown Castle is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Is CCI or SBAC more profitable?

SBA Communications has a net margin of 25.76% compared to Crown Castle's net margin of 18.59%. Crown Castle's return on equity of 20.98% beat SBA Communications' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crown Castle	18.59%	20.98%	3.20%
SBA Communications	25.76%	-13.13%	6.83%

Which has more volatility and risk, CCI or SBAC?

Crown Castle has a beta of 0.88, suggesting that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SBA Communications has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer CCI or SBAC?

In the previous week, Crown Castle had 10 more articles in the media than SBA Communications. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Crown Castle and 8 mentions for SBA Communications. SBA Communications' average media sentiment score of 1.49 beat Crown Castle's score of 1.32 indicating that SBA Communications is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Crown Castle	15 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
SBA Communications	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of CCI or SBAC?

90.8% of Crown Castle shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.3% of SBA Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Crown Castle shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of SBA Communications shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, CCI or SBAC?

Crown Castle has higher revenue and earnings than SBA Communications. Crown Castle is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SBA Communications, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crown Castle	$6.52B	6.68	$1.50B	-$10.76	-9.29
SBA Communications	$2.69B	9.12	$501.81M	$7.29	31.29

Summary

SBA Communications beats Crown Castle on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.