Critical Comparison: HG (OTCMKTS:STLY) & SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC)

HG (OTCMKTS:STLY – Get Rating) and SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC – Get Rating) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for HG and SBA Communications, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HG	0	0	0	0	N/A
SBA Communications	0	3	12	1	2.88

SBA Communications has a consensus target price of $335.40, suggesting a potential upside of 34.67%. Given SBA Communications’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SBA Communications is more favorable than HG.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares HG and SBA Communications’ gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HG	$2.43 million	8.56	$2.76 million	$0.59	12.29
SBA Communications	$2.63 billion	10.22	$461.43 million	$4.21	59.16

SBA Communications has higher revenue and earnings than HG. HG 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 HG and SBA Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HG	15.87%	6.03%	4.21%
SBA Communications	17.52%	-8.58%	4.54%

Volatility & Risk

HG has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SBA Communications has a beta of 0.49, indicating that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

1.7% of HG shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.5% of SBA Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 35.2% of HG shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of SBA Communications shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

SBA Communications beats HG on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HG

(Get Rating)

HG Holdings, Inc. engages in investment activities. It holds equity interest in a real estate company with single-tenant properties. The firm designs, markets and distributes resources in the upscale segment of the wood residential furniture market. It operates under the following segments: Title Insurance Services, Real Estate segments, and Others. HG Holdings was founded by Thomas Bahnson Stanley in 1924 and is headquartered in Charlotte, NC.

About SBA Communications

(Get Rating)

SBA Communications Corp. is a real estate investment trust, which engages in the provision of wireless communications infrastructures. It operates through the following business segments: Domestic Site Leasing, International Site Leasing, and Site Development. The Domestic Site Leasing segment includes AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless. The International Site Leasing segment acquires and develops towers. The Site Development segment includes consulting and construction activities. The company was founded by Steven E. Bernstein in 1989 and is headquartered in Boca Raton, FL.