SBA Communications (SBAC) Competitors

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) 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 profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and media sentiment.

Is AMT or SBAC a better dividend stock?

American Tower pays an annual dividend of $6.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. SBA Communications pays an annual dividend of $4.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. American Tower pays out 174.8% 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 60.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Tower has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and SBA Communications has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Do analysts recommend AMT or SBAC?

American Tower presently has a consensus price target of $240.88, indicating a potential upside of 7.87%. SBA Communications has a consensus price target of $255.53, indicating a potential upside of 9.25%. Given SBA Communications' higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe SBA Communications is more favorable than American Tower.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Tower	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	14 Buy rating(s)	3 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.11
SBA Communications	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75

Is AMT or SBAC more profitable?

SBA Communications has a net margin of 29.29% compared to American Tower's net margin of 17.34%. American Tower's return on equity of 30.20% beat SBA Communications' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Tower	17.34%	30.20%	4.82%
SBA Communications	29.29%	-15.30%	7.52%

Does the media prefer AMT or SBAC?

In the previous week, American Tower had 18 more articles in the media than SBA Communications. MarketBeat recorded 34 mentions for American Tower and 16 mentions for SBA Communications. American Tower's average media sentiment score of 1.43 beat SBA Communications' score of 1.23 indicating that American Tower is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American Tower	29 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
SBA Communications	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, AMT or SBAC?

American Tower has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SBA Communications has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, AMT or SBAC?

American Tower has higher revenue and earnings than SBA Communications. SBA Communications is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Tower, 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
American Tower	$10.13B	10.32	$2.26B	$3.89	57.41
SBA Communications	$2.68B	9.38	$749.54M	$7.29	32.08

Do institutionals & insiders believe in AMT or SBAC?

92.7% of American Tower shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.4% of SBA Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Tower shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of SBA Communications shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

American Tower beats SBA Communications on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.