“The third quarter was another solid one for SBA,” commented Jeffrey A. Stoops, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our customers were active across all of our markets and we executed well, once again posting industry-leading tower cash flow and adjusted EBITDA margins. Growth in site leasing revenue, tower cash flow, adjusted EBITDA and AFFO and a reduction in shares outstanding produced material year-over-year growth in AFFO per share,” Stoops said.
Barclays analyst Amir Rozwadowski concurred. “SBAC reported better-than-expected Q3 results. Specifically, leasing revenues came in 0.9% above our expectations, leading to total revenue outperformance of 1.1%,” Rozwadowski said. “Adjusted EBITDA of $303.1M was in line with our estimate of $302.6M, while AFFO per share of $1.75 was $0.02 above our $1.73 estimate,” he said.
| Q3 2017 | Q3 2016 | % Change | ||
| Consolidated | *in millions | |||
| Site leasing revenue | 408.5* | 388.2 | 5.2 | |
| Site development revenue | 25.4 | 23.2 | 9.5 | |
| Tower cash flow (1) | 321.5 | 302.8 | 6.2 | |
| Net income (loss) | 49.2 | (15.4 | 419.5 | |
| Earnings per share – diluted | 0.41 | (0.12 | 441.7 | |
| Adjusted EBITDA (1) | 303.1 | 283.2 | 7 | |
| AFFO (1) | 211.3 | 191.5 | 10.3 | |
| AFFO per share (1) | 1.75 | 1.53 | 14.4 | |
“We continue to focus on steady balance sheet management and opportunistic capital allocation, with a number of successes in these areas since our last report.,” Stoops said. “We remain solidly on track to achieve our goal of producing at least $10 of AFFO per share in 2020. With FirstNet, 600 Mhz, 2.5 Ghz, and other deployments by our customers still ahead in the U.S. and material network investment expected from our customers in our international markets, we remain very optimistic about the future and our ability to create additional shareholder value through consistent and material growth in AFFO per share,” he said.
October 31, 2017
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