SBA is Solid

Even though Crown Castle and American Tower get the majority of the attention in the tower world, SBA Communications shouldn’t be forgotten. This week, SBA reported their third quarter earnings ahead of expectations. Colby Synesael at Cowen and Company wrote in a research note, “SBAC posted solid 3Q14 results and provided a solid initial 2015 outlook that lacks the outsized ‘acquired networks’ churn that Crown expects. As such, we expect the stock to benefit from a bit of a relief rally today after trading down ~3% the last three days. Reiterate Outperform.” On the conference call yesterday morning, the tower company noted the four major wireless carriers contributed to more than 80% of incremental leasing revenue, and expects solid network build activity from Verizon and T-Mobile. Jennifer Fritzsche, Senior Analyst at Wells Fargo explained that SBA expects T-Mobile to be stronger with their 700MHz build and Verizon to continue to grow as it begins densifying its network. They also believe Sprint will be active deploying 2.5GHz in certain markets. Even though there have been widely reported network slowdowns from AT&T, SBA noted it has not seen it yet. While the other towercos in the market are looking to expand their international presence from Brazil to India, and many places in between, SBA will continue concentrating on the Western Hemisphere, specifically South America.