One Liberty Properties (NYSE:OLP) vs. SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) Financial Contrast

One Liberty Properties (NYSE:OLP) and SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for One Liberty Properties and SBA Communications, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
One Liberty Properties	0	0	1	0	3.00
SBA Communications	0	4	9	2	2.87

One Liberty Properties currently has a consensus price target of $28.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.21%. SBA Communications has a consensus price target of $252.29, suggesting a potential upside of 27.43%. Given SBA Communications’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe SBA Communications is more favorable than One Liberty Properties.

Volatility and Risk

One Liberty Properties has a beta of 1.39, indicating that its share price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SBA Communications has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares One Liberty Properties and SBA Communications”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
One Liberty Properties	$90.65 million	6.05	$29.61 million	$1.62	15.83
SBA Communications	$2.71 billion	7.85	$501.81 million	$6.34	31.23

SBA Communications has higher revenue and earnings than One Liberty Properties. One Liberty Properties is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SBA Communications, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares One Liberty Properties and SBA Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
One Liberty Properties	38.96%	11.35%	4.58%
SBA Communications	25.76%	-13.13%	6.83%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

36.2% of One Liberty Properties shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.4% of SBA Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 25.4% of One Liberty Properties shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of SBA Communications shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

One Liberty Properties pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.0%. SBA Communications pays an annual dividend of $3.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. One Liberty Properties pays out 111.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. SBA Communications pays out 61.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

SBA Communications beats One Liberty Properties on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About One Liberty Properties

One Liberty Properties, Inc. is a real estate investment trust, which engages in acquisition, ownership, and management of the geographically diversified portfolio consisting primarily of industrial, retail, restaurant, health and fitness, and theater properties, many of which are subject to long-term leases. The properties in the firm’s portfolio include net leases, long-term lease, and scheduled rent increases. The company was founded in December 1982 and is headquartered in Great Neck, NY.

About SBA Communications

SBA Communications Corporation is a leading independent owner and operator of wireless communications infrastructure including towers, buildings, rooftops, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells. With a portfolio of more than 39,000 communications sites throughout the Americas, Africa and in Asia, SBA is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol SBAC. Our organization is part of the S&P 500 and is one of the top Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) by market capitalization.