SBA Communications
Through the investors’ lenses
Each of these investors has said in public what they look at before buying. Click a name to see how this company measures up — a tick where it passes one of their tests, a cross where it does not.
Warren Buffett 1/1
| Measure | SBAC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner earnings | $55.78m | positive | ✓ |
| Return on equity | — | median 11.7% | — |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
| Operating margin | — | median 15.0% | — |
Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Warren Buffett has never said anything about SBA Communications. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Terry Smith 1/2
| Measure | SBAC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | 16.7% | median 10.1% | ✓ |
| Cash conversion | 1.23x | median 1.78x | ✗ |
| Operating margin | — | median 15.0% | — |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
Passes 1 of 2. To be clear: Terry Smith has never said anything about SBA Communications. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Charlie Munger 1/1
| Measure | SBAC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | 16.7% | median 10.1% | ✓ |
| Return on equity | — | median 11.7% | — |
| Operating margin | — | median 15.0% | — |
Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Charlie Munger has never said anything about SBA Communications. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Chuck Akre 0/1
| Measure | SBAC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on equity | — | median 11.7% | — |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
| Cash conversion | 1.23x | median 1.78x | ✗ |
Passes 0 of 1. To be clear: Chuck Akre has never said anything about SBA Communications. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Philip Fisher 1/1
| Measure | SBAC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating margin | — | median 15.0% | — |
| Net margin | — | median 10.2% | — |
| Return on capital employed | 16.7% | median 10.1% | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Philip Fisher has never said anything about SBA Communications. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Walter Schloss 0/1
| Measure | SBAC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current ratio | 0.29x | median 1.25x | ✗ |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
Passes 0 of 1. To be clear: Walter Schloss has never said anything about SBA Communications. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Benjamin Graham 1/2
| Measure | SBAC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current ratio | 0.29x | 2.00x published | ✗ |
| Long-term debt to working capital | — | 1.00x published | — |
| Positive earnings, ten years running | 10 yrs | 10 published | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 2. To be clear: Benjamin Graham has never said anything about SBA Communications. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Joel Greenblatt 1/1
| Measure | SBAC | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | 16.7% | median 10.1% | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Joel Greenblatt has never said anything about SBA Communications. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
| Basis | Payout | Why |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP earnings | 45.5% | whyDepressed by depreciation on buildings that are not losing value. |
| Operating cash flow | 37.1% | whyBefore capital spending. |
| Funds from operations | 42.1% | whyThe industry's basis — adds that depreciation back. |
No free cash flow figure is shown. This company does not report the inputs for it in its XBRL filings — capital expenditure, in particular, is often folded into a single investing total rather than tagged on its own. The figure is absent from the filings, not zero, and inventing one from a balance-sheet movement would be a guess dressed as a measurement.
Spread between highest and lowest: 8.4 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 65 / 100 — Adequate. ? Peer standing 47/50Direction 4/30Stability 14/20
Funds from operations payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 42.1% |
| 2024-12-31 | 41.6% |
| 2023-12-31 | 30.2% |
| 2022-12-31 | 26.2% |
| 2021-12-31 | 27.0% |
| 2020-12-31 | 27.8% |
Coverage has deteriorated three years running, 26.2% to 42.1%. Still covered, but moving the wrong way.
93% of the 46 real estate here pay out more — comfortable for the sector.
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $4.45 ÷ diluted EPS $9.80
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $479m ÷ operating cash flow $1,291m
- Funds from operations — dividends declared per share $4.45 ÷ derived FFO $10.58 per share
- FFO built NAREIT-style: net income, plus real-estate depreciation, less gains on sale, over weighted-average diluted shares
- This is an approximation. Every REIT defines its own adjusted variant in the filing text, so it will not match the earnings release exactly
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-27 · accession 0001034054-26-000002
All public at sec.gov — you should not have to take our word for it.
Caveats on this company
- DPS derived from dividends paid ($4.45); no per-share tag filed
- FFO derived (NAREIT approximation)
- basis discarded as outside the sane band (distribution far larger than the year's income — usually a special dividend or a return of capital, not a payout ratio): fcf
Computed straight from SEC XBRL. A number that looks wrong to you is more useful to us than agreement — tell us.
What the funds from operations payout ratio measures, and where every company here sits on it.
Also on: rated adequate · when it files.
When this changes
Every figure above is recomputed whenever SBA Communications files. The monthly letter carries what filed, what moved, and one finding computed across every company here.