Share count
108Mpeak FY2016
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SBAC, SBA Communications Corporation
We are a leading independent owner and operator of wireless communications infrastructure, including tower structures, rooftops, and other structures that support antennas used for wireless communications, which we collectively refer to as "towers" or "sites."
In our site leasing business, we (1) lease space to wireless service providers and other customers on assets that we own or operate and (2) manage rooftop and tower sites for property owners under various contractual arrangements.
As of December 31, 2025, we owned 46,328 towers, a substantial portion of which have been built by us or built by other tower owners or operators who, like us, have built such towers to lease space to multiple wireless service providers.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
$2.8B
+5.1% YoY · 6% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $2.9B 5-yr avg $2.6B
Revenue $47M −1.6% vs yr-ago qtr
Operating margin 725.0% yr-ago 697.2%
Net income $185M yr-ago $218M
Net margin 391.0% yr-ago 453.6%
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What it is
- Revenue is Domestic Site Leasing (66%), International Site Leasing (25%) and Site Development (9%).
- What moves the needle
- Occupancy, rents, and the cost of debt. Read on funds from operations and net asset value, because GAAP depreciation distorts the earnings, and a property downturn meets a balance sheet built on leverage. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Funds from operations per share have compounded about 7% a year across the record. The dividend takes 45% of FFO, and is covered. Debt is 111% of assets, heavy for a REIT. The quality and location of the properties, the lease terms and occupancy, and the cost of the debt are what the 10-K settles, and no single ratio captures them.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →The biggest segment, Domestic Site Leasing, is also where the profit is made: 66% of revenue and 82% of segment operating profit.
Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025
Operating profit same segments
- Domestic Site Leasing66%$1.9B82% of profit
- International Site Leasing25%$705M16% of profit
- Site Development9%$244M2% of profit
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $1.6B | $1.7B | $1.9B | $2.0B | $2.1B | $2.3B | $2.6B | $2.7B | $2.7B | $2.8B | $2.9B | RevenueRevenue |
| $76M | $104M | $47M | $147M | $24M | $238M | $461M | $502M | $750M | $1.1B | $1.0B | Net incomeNet inc. |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $714M | $747M | $720M | $844M | $746M | $938M | $1.2B | $1.2B | $1.0B | $1.1B | $1.1B | Funds from operationsFFO |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| — | — | — | 10% | 28% | 27% | 26% | 30% | 42% | 42% | 45% | Dividend payout (FFO)Payout |
| $5.1B | $5.3B | $5.6B | $5.8B | $6.0B | $7.1B | $8.0B | $8.2B | $8.2B | $8.9B | $8.9B | Real estate (gross)RE gross |
| $7.4B | $7.3B | $7.2B | $9.8B | $9.2B | $9.8B | $10.6B | $10.2B | $11.4B | $11.6B | $11.7B | Total assetsAssets |
| 119% | 127% | 138% | 106% | 121% | 126% | 122% | 121% | 119% | 111% | 111% | Debt / assetsDebt/assets |
| $8.8B | $9.3B | $9.9B | $10.3B | $11.1B | $12.3B | $12.9B | $12.3B | $13.6B | $12.9B | $13.0B | Total debtDebt |
| $8.6B | $9.2B | $9.8B | $10.2B | $10.8B | $11.9B | $12.7B | $12.1B | $13.1B | $12.6B | $12.6B | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| ($2.0B) | ($2.6B) | ($3.4B) | ($3.7B) | ($4.8B) | ($5.3B) | ($5.3B) | ($5.2B) | ($5.1B) | ($4.9B) | ($4.8B) | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 125M | 121M | 117M | 115M | 113M | 111M | 109M | 109M | 108M | 108M | 106M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $5.71 | $6.17 | $6.18 | $7.36 | $6.58 | $8.44 | $10.69 | $11.25 | $9.44 | $10.58 | $10.36 | FFO / shareFFO/sh |
| — | — | — | $0.73 | $1.83 | $2.28 | $2.80 | $3.40 | $3.92 | $4.45 | $4.64 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $-15.95 | $-21.48 | $-28.98 | $-31.97 | $-42.52 | $-47.52 | $-48.24 | $-47.48 | $-47.28 | $-45.14 | $-44.78 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +8.0%/yr | +7.4%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +8.4%/yr | +2.4%/yr |
| EPS | +36.2%/yr | +115.2%/yr |
| Dividends / share | +35.3%/yr (6-yr) | +19.5%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | +7.2%/yr | +13.0%/yr |
The year, in the company's words
the filing →Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.
- Site Development+59.9%
“Site development revenues increased $91.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, as compared to the prior year, as a result of increased carrier activity.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
Revenue
$2.8Blow FY2016
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →
Is it a good business?
- about $10.58 per shareNet income $1.1B + depreciation $292M − gains on sale $208M
What this means
GAAP net income with property depreciation added back, because the buildings a REIT charges against earnings usually hold or grow their value. This, not net income, is what a REIT is actually priced on. It is an approximation here: where a filing reports gains on property sales, we remove them, the way the NAREIT definition does.
- Lightly coveredDividends $479M ÷ FFO $1.1B
What this means
A REIT must distribute most of its taxable income, so a high payout is normal and the question is whether FFO covers it. Above 100%, the trust is funding the dividend with debt or asset sales, and a cut usually follows.
Is it sound?
- Debt / assets 111%HeavyTotal debt $12.9B ÷ assets $11.6B
What this means
Every REIT runs on leverage; how much is the question. Heavy debt is what turns a property downturn into a wipeout, as 2008 showed, so a conservative balance sheet is part of the moat here, not a drag on it.
- Strong(operating income + depreciation) ÷ interest $196M
What this means
How many times the property cash earnings cover the interest bill. Comfortable coverage is what lets a REIT refinance through a tight credit market instead of being forced to sell into one.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Low contestabilityThe moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.
In its own filing A competitive risk, new this year
Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.
“In addition, any failure on our part to evolve with developments in artificial intelligence, which is potentially more power-intensive and which may require levels of power that our facilities may not be designed to provide, may reduce the demand for our wireless infrastructure to the extent our competitors are more eq…”
AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat, and the company is using it that way.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
Current assets$767M
- Cash & short-term investments$381M
- Receivables$161M
- Other current assets$225M
Current liabilities$3.3B
- Debt due within a year$2.7B
- Accounts payable$64M
- Other current liabilities$599M
Current ratio0.23×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio0.23×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.11×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital($2.6B)the cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$2.7B due · $381M cash
cash alone won't cover the maturities; it leans on refinancing or operating cash · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago−1.6%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters0.2× → 0.2×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value($7.6B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Debt incl. operating leases$15.4B$2.4B of it operating leases; with finance leases, “total fixed claims” below reaches $15.3B (annual-report basis)
Deferred revenue$6Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float
From the company's latest filing.
Lease obligations
the lease note, SEC EDGAR →Debt by another name. What the business owes on the property, aircraft, stores and equipment it rents rather than owns is a fixed claim due on a schedule; added back to the debt, it is the true leverage. That ladder, operating and finance leases together, and what it adds to the debt on the page above.
Operating leasesFinance leases
Lease payments by year, scaled to the largest; “later” is everything beyond year five, shown apart. These are the contractual cash payments, before the interest the filing imputes back out to the balance-sheet liability.
Due in the next 12 months$313Ma fixed cash payment, owed whether or not the business has a good year
Total lease payments$4.5Bevery year plus the tail, undiscounted: the full cash the leases will take
On the balance sheet$2.4Bthe present value of those payments, the recognised lease liability
True leverage: debt plus leases
On-balance-sheet debt$12.9B
Lease obligations (present value)$2.4B
Total fixed claims on the business$15.3B
Counting the leases the way Buffett does, the fixed claims on this business come to $15.3B, of which the leases are 16%. The lease wall above and the debt schedule together are the calendar of what must be paid, and when.
Lease ladder read from the ASC 842 tags in the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled: the yearly buckets sum to the undiscounted total, which less the imputed interest equals the balance-sheet liability; a ladder that doesn’t tie out is withheld.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.
| Fiscal year | Chief executive | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Jeffrey A. Stoops | $10.0M | $32.0M | $1.1B |
| 2022 | Jeffrey A. Stoops | $13.3M | −$4.8M | $1.1B |
| 2023 | Jeffrey A. Stoops | $11.3M | $7.9M | $1.3B |
| 2024 | Brendan T. Cavanagh | $8.8M | $4.8M | $1.1B |
| 2025 | Brendan T. Cavanagh | $11.4M | $10.7M | $1.1B |
Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.
- Insider ownership<1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
- CEO pay ratio131:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.
- Stock-based compensation$76M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 3% of revenue, equal to 6% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
Peers, Tower & infrastructure REITs
The same industry, side by side on the REIT lens. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | FFO margin | FFO / assets | Payout (FFO) | Debt / assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMTAmerican Tower Corp. | $10.6B | 44% | 7.5% | 50% | 60% |
| CCICrown Castle Inc. | $4.3B | 40% | 6.2% | 87% | 54% |
| SBACSBA Communications Corporation | $2.8B | 41% | 9.8% | 28% | 121% |
| Group median | — | 41% | 7.5% | 50% | 60% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
price / FFOA REIT is priced on a multiple of its funds from operations (FFO), the cash it earns once the depreciation on its buildings is added back. Type today’s price; we show the multiple you would pay and the income and growth it implies.
$
The assumptions
FFO / share, delivered8%/yr’20→’25
The justified multiple is 1 ÷ (required return − growth), a perpetuity on FFO. At an 8% required return and 3% growth, a REIT is worth about 20× FFO.
Enter a price above to run it.
Price / FFO—
Justified by growth—
Dividend yield—
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
FFO about $10.36 per share on 106M shares. The dials set the multiple they justify; your price sets the multiple you are paying. FFO here adds back depreciation and removes property-sale gains, the NAREIT method; it does not net out maintenance capex (AFFO), occupancy or lease terms, which the 10-K does.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "SBA Communications Corporation (SBAC), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/SBAC, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← SATS its page in the Manual SBCF →
Industry order: ← SAFE the REITs — Specialty & Diversified chapter SBRA →