Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the five brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $132.40.

LAMR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Lamar Advertising from $142.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Lamar Advertising from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Lamar Advertising from $132.00 to $124.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Lamar Advertising from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising by 45.5% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,974,848 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $263,840,000 after acquiring an additional 617,356 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Lamar Advertising by 81.3% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 937,440 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $112,052,000 after buying an additional 420,311 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lamar Advertising during the third quarter worth approximately $43,665,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Lamar Advertising by 49,140.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 285,102 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $38,090,000 after buying an additional 284,523 shares during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in Lamar Advertising by 148.9% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 434,563 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $58,058,000 after acquiring an additional 259,979 shares during the last quarter. 93.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Lamar Advertising Price Performance

Shares of Lamar Advertising stock opened at $121.66 on Friday. Lamar Advertising has a twelve month low of $100.15 and a twelve month high of $139.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.48, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market cap of $12.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.33 and a beta of 1.50. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $128.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $125.69.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.17 by ($0.73). The company had revenue of $564.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $568.91 million. Lamar Advertising had a net margin of 23.46% and a return on equity of 42.58%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.04 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Lamar Advertising will post 7.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lamar Advertising Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 18th were given a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 18th. Lamar Advertising’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 112.00%.

About Lamar Advertising

Lamar Advertising Company operates as an outdoor advertising company in the United States and Canada. The company owns and operates billboards, logo signs, and transit advertising displays, as well as rents space for advertising on billboards, buses, shelters, benches, logo plates, and in airport terminals.