SBA Earnings: Amid Reduced Carrier Spending, Results Remain Good, and Management Is Opportunistic

SBA’s third-quarter results showed very little impact from the reduced network investment among U.S. wireless carriers, and we maintain that fears of a dramatic tower business deterioration are unfounded. We expect the slowdown in carrier spending will be only slightly more apparent in 2024. While SBA continued operating its business well in the third quarter, it finally—in our view—chose to buy back shares at the right time. SBA has not been our favorite tower stock over the past several years, but we are increasingly pleased with how management is running the business, and we think, even after a big bounce off the recent lows, the stock is materially undervalued. We’re maintaining our $260 fair value estimate.