Crown Castle (CCI) 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 businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, media sentiment, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings and risk.

Which has more volatility & risk, CCI or SBAC?

Crown Castle has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SBA Communications has a beta of 0.78, meaning that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, CCI or SBAC?

SBA Communications has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Crown Castle. 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	$5.42B	8.58	-$3.90B	-$10.67	-10.02
SBA Communications	$2.69B	9.14	$749.54M	$7.29	31.35

Do institutionals and insiders 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 insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of SBA Communications shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer CCI or SBAC?

In the previous week, Crown Castle had 23 more articles in the media than SBA Communications. MarketBeat recorded 35 mentions for Crown Castle and 12 mentions for SBA Communications. SBA Communications' average media sentiment score of 1.35 beat Crown Castle's score of 1.15 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	24 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
SBA Communications	11 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

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 4.0%. SBA Communications pays an annual dividend of $4.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Crown Castle pays out -39.8% 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.

Do analysts prefer CCI or SBAC?

Crown Castle presently has a consensus target price of $116.18, suggesting a potential upside of 8.69%. SBA Communications has a consensus target price of $257.19, suggesting a potential upside of 12.52%. Given SBA Communications' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe SBA Communications is more favorable than Crown Castle.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crown Castle	0 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	3 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.70
SBA Communications	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.71

Is CCI or SBAC more profitable?

SBA Communications has a net margin of 29.29% compared to Crown Castle's net margin of -85.54%. SBA Communications' return on equity of -15.30% beat Crown Castle's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crown Castle	-85.54%	-619.62%	-11.67%
SBA Communications	29.29%	-15.30%	7.52%

Summary

SBA Communications beats Crown Castle on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.