SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) vs. BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS (NYSE:BHR) Critical Review

SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) and BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS (NYSE:BHR) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for SBA Communications and BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SBA Communications	0	6	7	2	2.73
BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS	0	0	0	0	0.00

SBA Communications presently has a consensus target price of $252.57, indicating a potential upside of 29.24%. Given SBA Communications’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe SBA Communications is more favorable than BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SBA Communications and BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SBA Communications	$2.68 billion	7.83	$749.54 million	$7.87	24.83
BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS	$728.40 million	0.26	-$1.69 million	($0.77)	-3.66

SBA Communications has higher revenue and earnings than BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS. BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS 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 SBA Communications and BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SBA Communications	31.19%	-16.83%	7.94%
BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS	-0.07%	-0.22%	-0.02%

Dividends

SBA Communications pays an annual dividend of $4.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.1%. SBA Communications pays out 56.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS pays out -26.0% 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. BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk & Volatility

SBA Communications has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

97.4% of SBA Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.8% of BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of SBA Communications shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

SBA Communications beats BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SBA Communications

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. Our organization is part of the S&P 500 and is one of the top Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) by market capitalization.

About BRAEMAR HOTELS & RESORTS

Braemar Hotels & Resorts is a conservatively capitalized REIT that invests primarily in high RevPAR, full-service luxury hotels and resorts. We are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BHR and are externally-advised by Ashford (NYSE American: AINC).