Equity Commonwealth (NYSE:EQC) and SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) Head to Head Analysis

Equity Commonwealth (NYSE:EQC) and SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Equity Commonwealth and SBA Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Equity Commonwealth	168.05%	4.39%	4.12%
SBA Communications	19.22%	-9.85%	5.11%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Equity Commonwealth and SBA Communications”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Equity Commonwealth	$59.66 million	35.66	$91.16 million	$0.79	25.09
SBA Communications	$2.71 billion	9.81	$501.81 million	$4.74	52.21

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Equity Commonwealth and SBA Communications, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Equity Commonwealth	0	0	0	0	N/A
SBA Communications	0	3	9	0	2.75

SBA Communications has a consensus price target of $251.58, suggesting a potential upside of 1.66%. Given SBA Communications’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe SBA Communications is more favorable than Equity Commonwealth.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

96.0% of Equity Commonwealth shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.4% of SBA Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 2.8% of Equity Commonwealth 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 endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Equity Commonwealth has a beta of 0.27, meaning that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SBA Communications has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

SBA Communications beats Equity Commonwealth on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Equity Commonwealth

Equity Commonwealth (NYSE: EQC) is a Chicago based, internally managed and self-advised real estate investment trust (REIT) with commercial office properties in the United States. EQC's portfolio is comprised of four properties totaling 1.5 million square feet.

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.