Is SBA Communications Corporation (SBAC) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

Insider Monkey finished processing more than 700 13F filings made by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds’ portfolio positions as of September 30. In this article we are going to take a look at smart money sentiment towards SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC).

SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) shareholders have witnessed an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers of late. At the end of this article we will also compare SBAC to other stocks, including Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE), Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC), and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) to get a better sense of its popularity.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit there are dozens of gauges stock traders can use to assess stocks. A pair of the best gauges are hedge fund and insider trading sentiment. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can beat their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see the details here).

Now, let’s review the recent action surrounding SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC).

Hedge fund activity in SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC)

Heading into Q4, a total of 49 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, an increase of 9% from the second quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings significantly (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital has the biggest position in SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC), worth close to $293.5 million, comprising 1.2% of its total 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which holds a $243.7 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining professional money managers that hold long positions consist of Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital, Israel Englander’s Millennium Management and Charles Akre’s Akre Capital Management.

As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have been driving this bullishness. Maplelane Capital, managed by Leon Shaulov, created the largest position in SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC). Maplelane Capital had $18.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Eduardo Abush’s Waterfront Capital Partners also initiated a $10.6 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new SBAC investors: George Soros’s Soros Fund Management, John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors, and Stuart J. Zimmer’s Zimmer Partners.

Let’s check out hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE), Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC), NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), and FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble SBAC’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 30 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $477 million. That figure was $1.91 billion in SBAC’s case. Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) is the most popular stock in this table, while Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) and FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) are the least popular ones with only 24 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) is more popular among hedge funds. Considering that hedge funds are fond of this stock in relation to its market cap peers, it may be a good idea to analyze it in detail and potentially include it in your portfolio.