Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) by 6.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 61,873 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 3,769 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC owned about 0.06% of Lamar Advertising worth $7,532,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LAMR. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Lamar Advertising by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 9,101 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,108,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Lamar Advertising by 6.5% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,497,702 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $200,093,000 after purchasing an additional 90,933 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Lamar Advertising by 19,961.8% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 110,340 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $14,741,000 after purchasing an additional 109,790 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Lamar Advertising by 39.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 51,503 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,017,000 after buying an additional 14,672 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising by 96.0% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 97,498 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $13,026,000 after buying an additional 47,746 shares during the period. 93.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Lamar Advertising from $121.76 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Lamar Advertising from $129.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lamar Advertising presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $134.60.

Lamar Advertising Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of LAMR opened at $111.19 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $123.20 and its 200 day moving average is $127.30. The company has a market capitalization of $11.39 billion, a PE ratio of 31.50 and a beta of 1.53. Lamar Advertising has a 12-month low of $108.80 and a 12-month high of $139.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.48.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.74. The company had revenue of $579.57 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $583.19 million. Lamar Advertising had a return on equity of 30.20% and a net margin of 16.40%. Research analysts expect that Lamar Advertising will post 7.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lamar Advertising Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Lamar Advertising’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. Lamar Advertising’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 175.64%.

Lamar Advertising Company 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.