Louisiana-Pacific Co. (NYSE:LPX) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Louisiana-Pacific Co. (NYSE:LPX) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $73.71.

LPX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Louisiana-Pacific from $57.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 14th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Louisiana-Pacific from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. TheStreet downgraded Louisiana-Pacific from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Louisiana-Pacific in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $76.00 target price on shares of Louisiana-Pacific in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th.

Insider Activity at Louisiana-Pacific

In related news, Director Lizanne C. Gottung sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.58, for a total transaction of $193,950.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,995 shares in the company, valued at $2,016,692.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.53% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Louisiana-Pacific

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LPX. Capula Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Louisiana-Pacific during the third quarter worth $485,000. Arlington Trust Co LLC bought a new stake in Louisiana-Pacific in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,062,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its position in Louisiana-Pacific by 35.7% in the third quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 195,718 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock worth $10,817,000 after purchasing an additional 51,461 shares in the last quarter. Caxton Associates LP lifted its stake in Louisiana-Pacific by 222.1% during the third quarter. Caxton Associates LP now owns 14,656 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock worth $810,000 after purchasing an additional 10,106 shares during the period. Finally, Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in Louisiana-Pacific during the second quarter valued at approximately $114,640,000. 94.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Louisiana-Pacific Stock Down 1.9 %

LPX opened at $78.82 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.70 billion, a PE ratio of 32.17 and a beta of 1.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 3.00 and a quick ratio of 1.54. Louisiana-Pacific has a fifty-two week low of $49.47 and a fifty-two week high of $84.54. The business has a 50-day moving average of $74.69 and a 200-day moving average of $66.14.

Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The building manufacturing company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.17. Louisiana-Pacific had a net margin of 6.90% and a return on equity of 15.65%. The firm had revenue of $658.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $618.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.61 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Louisiana-Pacific will post 3.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Louisiana-Pacific Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This is an increase from Louisiana-Pacific’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 22nd. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. Louisiana-Pacific’s payout ratio is presently 42.45%.

About Louisiana-Pacific

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides building solutions primarily for use in new home construction, repair and remodeling, and outdoor structure markets. It operates through Siding, Oriented Strand Board, LP South America, and Other segments. The Siding segment offers LP SmartSide trim and siding products, LP SmartSide ExpertFinish trim and siding products, LP BuilderSeries lap siding products, and LP Outdoor Building Solutions; and engineered wood siding, trim, soffit, and fascia products.