Head to Head Contrast: SBA Communications (NASDAQ:SBAC) vs. Sotherly Hotels (NASDAQ:SOHO)

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

27.5% of Sotherly Hotels shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.4% of SBA Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 14.6% of Sotherly Hotels 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 company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Sotherly Hotels and SBA Communications, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sotherly Hotels	0	1	0	0	2.00
SBA Communications	0	3	9	1	2.85

Sotherly Hotels currently has a consensus target price of $1.50, indicating a potential upside of 63.04%. SBA Communications has a consensus target price of $257.23, indicating a potential upside of 12.57%. Given Sotherly Hotels’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sotherly Hotels is more favorable than SBA Communications.

Profitability

This table compares Sotherly Hotels and SBA Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sotherly Hotels	0.92%	3.48%	0.41%
SBA Communications	25.76%	-13.13%	6.83%

Risk & Volatility

Sotherly Hotels has a beta of 1.66, indicating that its share price is 66% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SBA Communications has a beta of 0.68, indicating that its share price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sotherly Hotels and SBA Communications”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sotherly Hotels	$173.84 million	0.11	$3.94 million	($0.33)	-2.79
SBA Communications	$2.71 billion	9.06	$501.81 million	$6.34	36.04

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

Summary

SBA Communications beats Sotherly Hotels on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sotherly Hotels

Sotherly Hotels Inc. is a self-managed and self-administered lodging REIT focused on the acquisition, renovation, upbranding and repositioning of upscale to upper-upscale full-service hotels in the Southern United States. Sotherly may also opportunistically acquire hotels throughout the United States. Currently, the Company's portfolio consists of investments in ten hotel properties, comprising 2,786 rooms, as well as interests in two condominium hotels and their associated rental programs. The Company owns hotels that operate under the Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels Corporation brands, as well as independent hotels. Sotherly Hotels Inc. was organized in 2004 and is headquartered in Williamsburg, Virginia.

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.