Stephens Inc. AR Decreases Stock Position in Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR)

Stephens Inc. AR decreased its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR – Get Rating) by 7.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,930 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 383 shares during the quarter. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Lamar Advertising were worth $573,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LAMR. National Bank of Canada FI purchased a new position in Lamar Advertising during the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Lamar Advertising during the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. UMB Bank N A MO purchased a new position in Lamar Advertising during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Sageworth Trust Co of South Dakota purchased a new position in Lamar Advertising during the fourth quarter worth approximately $42,000. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in Lamar Advertising by 3,118.2% during the fourth quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 354 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Anna Reilly sold 10,000 shares of Lamar Advertising stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.17, for a total value of $901,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 145,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,158,327.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 14.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on LAMR shares. StockNews.com downgraded Lamar Advertising from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley downgraded Lamar Advertising from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $135.00 to $103.00 in a research report on Friday, June 10th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Lamar Advertising from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $112.00 to $108.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.00.

Lamar Advertising Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ LAMR opened at $99.06 on Wednesday. Lamar Advertising has a twelve month low of $83.96 and a twelve month high of $124.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.43. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $93.05 and a 200-day simple moving average of $103.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.05 billion, a PE ratio of 22.77 and a beta of 1.38.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 5th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.18. Lamar Advertising had a return on equity of 35.97% and a net margin of 23.66%. The business had revenue of $451.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $427.21 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Lamar Advertising will post 6.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Lamar Advertising Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 20th were paid a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 16th. This is a boost from Lamar Advertising’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.85%. Lamar Advertising’s payout ratio is presently 110.35%.

Lamar Advertising Profile

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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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