SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) & Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LANDP) Critical Analysis

SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) and Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LANDP) are both real estate companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and risk.

Profitability

This table compares SBA Communications and Gladstone Land’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SBA Communications	34.51%	-20.67%	8.56%
Gladstone Land	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for SBA Communications and Gladstone Land, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SBA Communications	0	9	8	0	2.47
Gladstone Land	0	0	0	0	0.00

SBA Communications currently has a consensus target price of $228.12, suggesting a potential upside of 27.87%. Given SBA Communications’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe SBA Communications is more favorable than Gladstone Land.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.3% of SBA Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of SBA Communications shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares SBA Communications and Gladstone Land”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SBA Communications	$2.82 billion	6.72	$1.05 billion	$9.50	18.78
Gladstone Land	$88.09 million	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

SBA Communications has higher revenue and earnings than Gladstone Land.

Dividends

SBA Communications pays an annual dividend of $5.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Gladstone Land pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.0%. SBA Communications pays out 52.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SBA Communications has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Summary

SBA Communications beats Gladstone Land on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Gladstone Land

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion. Gladstone Land's farms are predominantly located in regions where its tenants are able to grow fresh produce annual row crops, such as berries and vegetables, which are generally planted and harvested annually. The Company also owns farms growing permanent crops, such as almonds, apples, cherries, figs, lemons, olives, pistachios, and other orchards, as well as blueberry groves and vineyards, which are generally planted every 20-plus years and harvested annually. Approximately 40% of the Company's fresh produce acreage is either organic or in transition to become organic, and over 10% of its permanent crop acreage falls into this category. The Company may also acquire property related to farming, such as cooling facilities, processing buildings, packaging facilities, and distribution centers. Gladstone Land pays monthly distributions to its stockholders and has paid 129 consecutive monthly cash distributions on its common stock since its initial public offering in January 2013. The Company has increased its common distributions 32 times over the prior 35 quarters, and the current per-share distribution on its common stock is $0.0464 per month, or $0.5568 per year.