Baron Real Estate Fund Exited SBA Communications Corporation (SBAC) due to Multiple Headwinds
Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its “Baron Real Estate Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund rose 7.07% (Institutional Shares) compared to a 2.39% return for the MSCI US REIT Index (the “REIT Index”) and a 4.73% return for the MSCI USA IMI Extended Real Estate Index (the “MSCI Real Estate Index”). The firm is optimistic about the prospects for the stock market, public real estate securities, and the fund. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Baron Real Estate Fund highlighted stocks like SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) provides wireless communications infrastructures. On June 27, 2023, SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) stock closed at $225.50 per share. One-month return of SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) was 1.68%, and its shares lost 28.92% of their value over the last 52 weeks. SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) has a market capitalization of $24.43 billion.
Baron Real Estate Fund made the following comment about SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) in its first quarter 2023 investor letter:
“In the most recent quarter, we exited our investment in SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC), a global wireless cell tower REIT that owns a portfolio of wireless tower sites heavily concentrated in the U.S. We had been long-term shareholders of SBA due to our respect for CEO Jeff Stoops, who we have known for several years. We believe Jeff has been an astute allocator of capital and has created tremendous shareholder value over the long term. Jeff will be retiring from SBA at the end of 2023.
We believe a series of issues are likely to temper SBA’s growth in the next few years, including higher debt refinancing costs, wireless carrier decommissioning, headwinds from the company’s Latin American operations, and perhaps foreign exchange headwinds. Our sense is that the company’s annual cash flow growth will decelerate from 14% in 2022 to just 3% in 2023 and remain at modest annual growth rates over the next few years. The company’s high leverage, approximately 6.9 times net debt to cash flow, will limit the company’s ability for share repurchases and external growth opportunities.”
SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 42 hedge fund portfolios held SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) at the end of the first quarter which was 42 in the previous quarter.
We discussed SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC) in another article and shared the list of best communication services stocks to invest in. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
