American Tower vs SBA Communications
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The short version
- American Tower is the larger business, with $10.6B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $2.8B for SBA Communications, about 3.8 times as much.
- SBA Communications kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (47.7% operating margin, against 45.5%).
- SBA Communications turned more of its sales into free cash flow (37.9% FCF margin, against 35.5%).
- SBA Communications earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (14.4%, against 9.3%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of American Tower’s earnings: a P/E of 26.0x against 19.9x for SBA Communications.
| Latest fiscal year | AMT · FY25 | SBAC · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $88.1B | $19.6B |
| Revenue | $10.6B | $2.8B |
| Free cash flow | $3.8B | $1.1B |
| Net income | $2.6B | $1.1B |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 5.1% | 5.1% |
| 5-year growth | 5.8% | 6.2% |
| Share count change | 0.1% | −0.5% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | — | 75.5% |
| Operating margin | 45.5% | 47.7% |
| Net margin | 24.7% | 37.4% |
| FCF margin | 35.5% | 37.9% |
| Return on capital | 9.3% | 14.4% |
| Return on equity | 74.7% | — |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $35.7B | $12.6B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 5.2x | 7.7x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $3.5B | $977M |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 26.0x | 19.9x |
| Piotroski F-score | 5 | 6 |
Revenue
FY16
AMT $5.8B
SBAC $1.6B
FY17
AMT $6.7B
SBAC $1.7B
FY18
AMT $7.4B
SBAC $1.9B
FY19
AMT $7.6B
SBAC $2.0B
FY20
AMT $8.0B
SBAC $2.1B
FY21
AMT $9.4B
SBAC $2.3B
FY22
AMT $9.6B
SBAC $2.6B
FY23
AMT $10.0B
SBAC $2.7B
FY24
AMT $10.1B
SBAC $2.7B
FY25
AMT $10.6B
SBAC $2.8B
AMT
SBAC
Operating margin
FY16
AMT 32.0%
SBAC 23.7%
FY17
AMT 30.0%
SBAC 26.5%
FY18
AMT 25.6%
SBAC 29.2%
FY19
AMT 35.5%
SBAC 29.0%
FY20
AMT 35.9%
SBAC 30.4%
FY21
AMT 33.5%
SBAC 33.9%
FY22
AMT 28.4%
SBAC 35.1%
FY23
AMT 31.2%
SBAC 34.1%
FY24
AMT 44.6%
SBAC 53.6%
FY25
AMT 45.5%
SBAC 47.7%
AMT
SBAC
Free cash flow
FY16
AMT $2.0B
SBAC $603M
FY17
AMT $2.1B
SBAC $671M
FY18
AMT $2.8B
SBAC $701M
FY19
AMT $2.8B
SBAC $816M
FY20
AMT $2.8B
SBAC $997M
FY21
AMT $3.4B
SBAC $1.1B
FY22
AMT $1.8B
SBAC $1.1B
FY23
AMT $2.9B
SBAC $1.3B
FY24
AMT $3.7B
SBAC $1.1B
FY25
AMT $3.8B
SBAC $1.1B
AMT
SBAC
Return on capital
FY16
AMT 6.6%
SBAC 5.1%
FY17
AMT 7.7%
SBAC 6.1%
FY18
AMT 7.3%
SBAC 7.7%
FY19
AMT 10.0%
SBAC 7.1%
FY20
AMT 8.9%
SBAC 8.0%
FY21
AMT 6.9%
SBAC 11.7%
FY22
AMT 5.2%
SBAC 11.5%
FY23
AMT 6.0%
SBAC 11.6%
FY24
AMT 8.8%
SBAC 18.6%
FY25
AMT 9.3%
SBAC 14.4%
AMT
SBAC
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.