Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) Shares Acquired by Navellier & Associates Inc.

Navellier & Associates Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) by 36.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,304 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,680 shares during the period. Navellier & Associates Inc.’s holdings in Lamar Advertising were worth $767,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Lamar Advertising by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,248,660 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $567,632,000 after purchasing an additional 119,068 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Lamar Advertising by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,640,356 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $352,752,000 after purchasing an additional 21,852 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Lamar Advertising by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,054,962 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $274,595,000 after purchasing an additional 90,775 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Lamar Advertising by 45.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,974,848 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $263,840,000 after purchasing an additional 617,356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Lamar Advertising by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,497,702 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $200,093,000 after acquiring an additional 90,933 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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 cut their price objective on shares of Lamar Advertising from $132.00 to $124.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Lamar Advertising from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Lamar Advertising from $129.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Lamar Advertising from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Lamar Advertising from $142.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lamar Advertising has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $133.40.

Lamar Advertising Stock Performance

Lamar Advertising stock opened at $121.91 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $124.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $127.49. Lamar Advertising has a 1-year low of $107.22 and a 1-year high of $139.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.48, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The stock has a market cap of $12.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54 and a beta of 1.51.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.74. The firm had revenue of $579.57 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $583.19 million. Lamar Advertising had a net margin of 16.40% and a return on equity of 30.20%. On average, analysts expect that Lamar Advertising will post 7.92 EPS for the current year.

Lamar Advertising Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.55 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Lamar Advertising’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.09%. Lamar Advertising’s dividend payout ratio is 175.64%.

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.