Better Buy: Crown Castle or American Tower?

Perhaps American Tower (NYSE: AMT) and Crown Castle International (NYSE: CCI) should switch names. They're both real estate investment trusts (REITs) with dominant positions in the mobile tower business, but American Tower is much more of an international player while Crown Castle is very much a domestic business.

The similarities are strong, though. Both have right around 40,000 towers in the U.S. And their total return in the past 10 years is essentially identical: 335% for American Tower to 334% for Crown Castle. (And both handily beat the S&P 500 at 267%. The chart below shows the growth of a $10,000 stake in each of these over the past decade.)

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Source Fool.com