Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR – Get Rating) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Thursday morning.

LAMR has been the subject of several other reports. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Lamar Advertising in a research note on Tuesday, March 29th. They set a market perform rating and a $131.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Lamar Advertising from $138.00 to $135.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 28th.

NASDAQ:LAMR opened at $94.97 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $112.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.43, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market cap of $9.64 billion, a PE ratio of 21.83 and a beta of 1.37. Lamar Advertising has a 1-year low of $93.42 and a 1-year high of $124.32.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.18. Lamar Advertising had a net margin of 23.66% and a return on equity of 35.97%. The firm had revenue of $451.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $427.21 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.15 earnings per share. Lamar Advertising’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Lamar Advertising will post 6.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 20th will be paid a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 16th. This is an increase from Lamar Advertising’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.05%. Lamar Advertising’s dividend payout ratio is 101.15%.

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising by 0.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,086,290 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,520,365,000 after purchasing an additional 43,704 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,858,477 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $953,234,000 after purchasing an additional 70,685 shares during the period. Cohen & Steers Inc. boosted its stake in Lamar Advertising by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. Cohen & Steers Inc. now owns 3,326,369 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $386,458,000 after acquiring an additional 116,808 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Lamar Advertising by 19.6% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,064,685 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $355,953,000 after acquiring an additional 502,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in Lamar Advertising by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,368,645 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $275,189,000 after acquiring an additional 85,713 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.03% of the company’s stock.

About Lamar Advertising (Get Rating)

Founded in 1902, Lamar Advertising (Nasdaq: LAMR) is one of the largest outdoor advertising companies in North America, with over 352,000 displays across the United States and Canada. Lamar offers advertisers a variety of billboard, interstate logo, transit and airport advertising formats, helping both local businesses and national brands reach broad audiences every day.

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