Crown Castle (CCI) Competitors

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

Which has better valuation and earnings, SBAC or CCI?

SBA Communications has higher earnings, but lower revenue 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
SBA Communications	$2.68B	8.93	$749.54M	$7.87	28.32
Crown Castle	$6.57B	6.87	-$3.90B	-$10.67	-9.72

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

97.4% of SBA Communications shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.8% of Crown Castle shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of SBA Communications shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Crown Castle shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is SBAC or CCI more profitable?

SBA Communications has a net margin of 31.19% compared to Crown Castle's net margin of -85.54%. SBA Communications' return on equity of -16.83% beat Crown Castle's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SBA Communications	31.19%	-16.83%	7.94%
Crown Castle	-85.54%	-619.62%	-11.67%

Do analysts prefer SBAC or CCI?

SBA Communications presently has a consensus price target of $258.25, suggesting a potential upside of 15.87%. Crown Castle has a consensus price target of $116.41, suggesting a potential upside of 12.30%. Given SBA Communications' higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe SBA Communications is more favorable than Crown Castle.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SBA Communications	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.71
Crown Castle	0 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	3 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75

Is SBAC or CCI a better dividend stock?

SBA Communications pays an annual dividend of $4.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Crown Castle pays an annual dividend of $4.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.1%. SBA Communications pays out 56.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crown Castle pays out -39.8% 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.

Which has more risk and volatility, SBAC or CCI?

SBA Communications has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crown Castle has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to SBAC or CCI?

In the previous week, Crown Castle had 14 more articles in the media than SBA Communications. MarketBeat recorded 32 mentions for Crown Castle and 18 mentions for SBA Communications. SBA Communications' average media sentiment score of 1.32 beat Crown Castle's score of 1.10 indicating that SBA Communications is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
SBA Communications	14 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Crown Castle	19 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

SBA Communications beats Crown Castle on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.