Crown Castle vs SBA Communications
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The short version
- Crown Castle is the larger business, with $4.3B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $2.8B for SBA Communications, about 1.5 times as much.
- SBA Communications grew revenue faster (5.1%, against −4.4%).
- Crown Castle kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (48.7% operating margin, against 47.7%).
- SBA Communications earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (14.4%, against 8.8%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Crown Castle’s earnings: a P/E of 43.6x against 19.9x for SBA Communications.
| Latest fiscal year | CCI · FY25 | SBAC · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $37.3B | $19.6B |
| Revenue | $4.3B | $2.8B |
| Free cash flow | — | $1.1B |
| Net income | $444M | $1.1B |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | −4.4% | 5.1% |
| 5-year growth | −6.1% | 6.2% |
| Share count change | 0.7% | −0.5% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | — | 75.5% |
| Operating margin | 48.7% | 47.7% |
| Net margin | 10.4% | 37.4% |
| FCF margin | — | 37.9% |
| Return on capital | 8.8% | 14.4% |
| Return on equity | — | — |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $24.2B | $12.6B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 8.8x | 7.7x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $2.1B | $977M |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 43.6x | 19.9x |
| Piotroski F-score | 5 | 6 |
Revenue
FY16
CCI $3.9B
SBAC $1.6B
FY17
CCI $4.3B
SBAC $1.7B
FY18
CCI $5.4B
SBAC $1.9B
FY19
CCI $5.8B
SBAC $2.0B
FY20
CCI $5.8B
SBAC $2.1B
FY21
CCI $6.3B
SBAC $2.3B
FY22
CCI $7.0B
SBAC $2.6B
FY23
CCI $4.7B
SBAC $2.7B
FY24
CCI $4.5B
SBAC $2.7B
FY25
CCI $4.3B
SBAC $2.8B
CCI
SBAC
Operating margin
FY16
CCI 24.2%
SBAC 23.7%
FY17
CCI 22.7%
SBAC 26.5%
FY18
CCI 25.8%
SBAC 29.2%
FY19
CCI 27.1%
SBAC 29.0%
FY20
CCI 31.9%
SBAC 30.4%
FY21
CCI 31.6%
SBAC 33.9%
FY22
CCI 34.7%
SBAC 35.1%
FY23
CCI 44.3%
SBAC 34.1%
FY24
CCI 47.5%
SBAC 53.6%
FY25
CCI 48.7%
SBAC 47.7%
CCI
SBAC
Free cash flow
FY16
CCI —
SBAC $603M
FY17
CCI —
SBAC $671M
FY18
CCI —
SBAC $701M
FY19
CCI —
SBAC $816M
FY20
CCI —
SBAC $997M
FY21
CCI —
SBAC $1.1B
FY22
CCI —
SBAC $1.1B
FY23
CCI —
SBAC $1.3B
FY24
CCI —
SBAC $1.1B
FY25
CCI —
SBAC $1.1B
CCI
SBAC
Return on capital
FY16
CCI 5.0%
SBAC 5.1%
FY17
CCI 4.2%
SBAC 6.1%
FY18
CCI 5.0%
SBAC 7.7%
FY19
CCI 5.5%
SBAC 7.1%
FY20
CCI 6.4%
SBAC 8.0%
FY21
CCI 6.9%
SBAC 11.7%
FY22
CCI 8.3%
SBAC 11.5%
FY23
CCI 7.1%
SBAC 11.6%
FY24
CCI 7.9%
SBAC 18.6%
FY25
CCI 8.8%
SBAC 14.4%
CCI
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.