Analyzing Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) and Kilroy Realty (NYSE:KRC)

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) and Kilroy Realty (NYSE:KRC) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Lamar Advertising pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Kilroy Realty pays an annual dividend of $2.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.4%. Lamar Advertising pays out 106.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Kilroy Realty pays out 124.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Lamar Advertising has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Lamar Advertising and Kilroy Realty, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lamar Advertising	0	2	0	0	2.00
Kilroy Realty	0	6	5	0	2.45

Lamar Advertising presently has a consensus price target of $109.50, suggesting a potential downside of 4.85%. Kilroy Realty has a consensus price target of $39.00, suggesting a potential upside of 14.94%. Given Kilroy Realty’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Kilroy Realty is more favorable than Lamar Advertising.

Profitability

This table compares Lamar Advertising and Kilroy Realty’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lamar Advertising	23.29%	41.80%	7.60%
Kilroy Realty	18.43%	3.63%	1.83%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lamar Advertising and Kilroy Realty’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lamar Advertising	$2.11 billion	5.56	$495.76 million	$4.87	23.63
Kilroy Realty	$1.13 billion	3.53	$212.24 million	$1.74	19.50

Lamar Advertising has higher revenue and earnings than Kilroy Realty. Kilroy Realty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lamar Advertising, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Lamar Advertising has a beta of 1.49, meaning that its stock price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kilroy Realty has a beta of 1.02, meaning that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

93.8% of Lamar Advertising shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.2% of Kilroy Realty shares are held by institutional investors. 15.0% of Lamar Advertising shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of Kilroy Realty shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Lamar Advertising beats Kilroy Realty on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. Lamar Advertising Company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

About Kilroy Realty

Kilroy Realty Corporation (NYSE: KRC, the company, Kilroy) is a leading U.S. landlord and developer, with operations in San Diego, Greater Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Seattle and Austin. The company has earned global recognition for sustainability, building operations, innovation and design. As a pioneer and innovator in the creation of a more sustainable real estate industry, the company's approach to modern business environments helps drive creativity and productivity for some of the world's leading technology, entertainment, life science and business services companies. The company is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) and member of the S&P MidCap 400 Index with more than seven decades of experience developing, acquiring and managing office, life science and mixed-use projects. As of December 31, 2023, Kilroy's stabilized portfolio totaled approximately 17.0 million square feet of primarily office and life science space that was 85.0% occupied and 86.4% leased. The company also had approximately 1,000 residential units in Hollywood and San Diego, which had a quarterly average occupancy of 92.5%. In addition, the company had two in-process life science redevelopment projects totaling approximately 100,000 square feet with total estimated redevelopment costs of $80.0 million and one approximately 875,000 square foot in-process development project with a total estimated investment of $1.0 billion.