Crown Castle International (NYSE:CCI) and SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
90.1% of Crown Castle International shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.9% of SBA Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Crown Castle International shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% 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 will outperform the market over the long term.
Volatility & Risk
Crown Castle International has a beta of 0.3, suggesting that its stock price is 70% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SBA Communications has a beta of 0.21, suggesting that its stock price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Dividends
Crown Castle International pays an annual dividend of $5.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. SBA Communications pays an annual dividend of $1.86 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Crown Castle International pays out 93.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. SBA Communications pays out 21.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crown Castle International has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years and SBA Communications has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Crown Castle International is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Crown Castle International and SBA Communications, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
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Crown Castle International | 0 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 2.67 |
SBA Communications | 0 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 2.69 |
Crown Castle International currently has a consensus price target of $174.7778, suggesting a potential upside of 17.20%. SBA Communications has a consensus price target of $315.1667, suggesting a potential upside of 33.59%. Given SBA Communications' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SBA Communications is more favorable than Crown Castle International.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Crown Castle International and SBA Communications' revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
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Crown Castle International | $5.77 billion | 11.14 | $860 million | $5.69 | 26.21 |
SBA Communications | $2.01 billion | 13.01 | $146.99 million | $8.49 | 27.79 |
Crown Castle International has higher revenue and earnings than SBA Communications. Crown Castle International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SBA Communications, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Crown Castle International and SBA Communications' net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
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Crown Castle International | 13.09% | 7.57% | 1.93% |
SBA Communications | -0.70% | N/A | -0.15% |
Summary
Crown Castle International beats SBA Communications on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.