SBA Communications Corporation $SBAC Shares Acquired by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,422,596 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 79,572 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 1.32% of SBA Communications worth $275,059,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its stake in shares of SBA Communications by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 179,706 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,202,000 after acquiring an additional 5,246 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in shares of SBA Communications by 58.2% during the second quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,501 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,292,000 after acquiring an additional 2,023 shares during the period. Donoghue Forlines LLC acquired a new position in shares of SBA Communications during the second quarter worth about $2,824,000. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in SBA Communications by 27.5% during the third quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 38,988 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,538,000 after purchasing an additional 8,404 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in SBA Communications by 24.6% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,855,329 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $358,728,000 after purchasing an additional 366,491 shares in the last quarter. 97.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on SBAC. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on SBA Communications from $215.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Scotiabank cut their price objective on SBA Communications from $233.00 to $223.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on SBA Communications from $245.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 12th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of SBA Communications from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of SBA Communications in a report on Thursday, March 5th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $218.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $232.17.

SBA Communications Price Performance

SBAC opened at $188.56 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $20.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.86. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $191.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $193.75. SBA Communications Corporation has a 1-year low of $177.49 and a 1-year high of $245.16.

SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $3.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.25 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $719.58 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $725.80 million. SBA Communications had a negative return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 36.40%.SBA Communications’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.47 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that SBA Communications Corporation will post 12.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SBA Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.25 per share. This is a boost from SBA Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.11. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. SBA Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.59%.

About SBA Communications

SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: SBAC) is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and develops wireless communications infrastructure. Its core business is the leasing of space on communications towers, rooftop sites and other wireless structures to mobile network operators, broadband providers and other wireless service customers. The company also provides site development, construction and ongoing site management services to support the deployment and operation of wireless networks.

In addition to traditional macro towers, SBA offers a range of infrastructure solutions designed for dense urban and suburban markets, including small cells, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and fiber backhaul and transport services.