SBA Communications Co. (NASDAQ:SBAC) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” by Analysts

Shares of SBA Communications Co. (NASDAQ:SBAC) have earned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $268.00.

A number of research firms have recently commented on SBAC. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of SBA Communications from $260.00 to $255.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on SBA Communications from $285.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded SBA Communications from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, March 7th.

SBA Communications Price Performance

NASDAQ:SBAC opened at $196.23 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $210.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $222.51. SBA Communications has a 1-year low of $185.23 and a 1-year high of $263.08. The firm has a market cap of $21.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.56.

SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The technology company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.37 by ($0.36). The company had revenue of $675.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $682.11 million. SBA Communications had a negative return on equity of 9.70% and a net margin of 18.51%. SBA Communications’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.11 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that SBA Communications will post 12.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SBA Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.98 dividend. This is a positive change from SBA Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.85. This represents a $3.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. SBA Communications’s payout ratio is 85.03%.

Insider Transactions at SBA Communications

In other SBA Communications news, Director Mary S. Chan sold 1,977 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $217.99, for a total value of $430,966.23. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,622 shares in the company, valued at $1,007,549.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On SBA Communications

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SBAC. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of SBA Communications by 0.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,801,806 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $560,838,000 after buying an additional 21,792 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in SBA Communications by 140.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,143,877 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $429,140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,252,764 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its stake in SBA Communications by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,091,103 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $530,492,000 after purchasing an additional 153,299 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in SBA Communications by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,958,156 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $496,765,000 after purchasing an additional 166,554 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in SBA Communications by 115.3% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,358,037 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $271,838,000 after purchasing an additional 727,163 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.35% of the company’s stock.

SBA Communications Company Profile

SBA Communications Corporation is a leading independent owner and operator of wireless communications infrastructure including towers, buildings, rooftops, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells. With a portfolio of more than 39,000 communications sites throughout the Americas, Africa and in Asia, SBA is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol SBAC.