Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. Decreases Holdings in Lamar Advertising Company $LAMR

Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. reduced its holdings in Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR) by 94.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,819 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 109,936 shares during the period. Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd.’s holdings in Lamar Advertising were worth $828,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LAMR. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Lamar Advertising by 27.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,344,637 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $284,577,000 after buying an additional 510,025 shares in the last quarter. Hamlin Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Hamlin Capital Management LLC now owns 1,338,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $162,431,000 after buying an additional 26,893 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Lamar Advertising by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,282,892 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $145,967,000 after buying an additional 4,495 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Lamar Advertising by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,109,668 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $126,258,000 after buying an additional 7,426 shares during the period. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Lamar Advertising by 4.3% in the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 674,089 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $76,698,000 after acquiring an additional 27,823 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on LAMR. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Lamar Advertising from $122.00 to $119.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Lamar Advertising in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Lamar Advertising from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Lamar Advertising from $122.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Lamar Advertising from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $131.75.

Insider Activity at Lamar Advertising

In other Lamar Advertising news, CFO Jay Lecoryelle Johnson sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.28, for a total value of $2,734,160.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 14.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Lamar Advertising Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of Lamar Advertising stock opened at $129.63 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $13.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.15 and a beta of 1.36. Lamar Advertising Company has a one year low of $99.84 and a one year high of $135.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $122.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $121.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.45, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.58.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.14 by $0.06. Lamar Advertising had a return on equity of 41.85% and a net margin of 19.72%.The company had revenue of $585.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $584.00 million. On average, analysts forecast that Lamar Advertising Company will post 7.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Lamar Advertising Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 19th were issued a $1.55 dividend. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 19th. Lamar Advertising’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 145.54%.

Lamar Advertising Profile

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.