Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Buys 598 Shares of Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its stake in Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,741 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 598 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Lamar Advertising were worth $3,012,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Lamar Advertising by 45.5% in the third 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 period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Lamar Advertising by 108.3% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 905,368 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $110,220,000 after buying an additional 470,805 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lamar Advertising in the 4th quarter worth about $48,023,000. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its position in Lamar Advertising by 631.7% during the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 180,296 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $24,088,000 after acquiring an additional 155,656 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners boosted its stake in Lamar Advertising by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,423,981 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $295,122,000 after acquiring an additional 152,575 shares in the last quarter. 93.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on LAMR shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Lamar Advertising from $129.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Lamar Advertising from $121.76 to $128.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.60.

Lamar Advertising Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of LAMR opened at $112.86 on Tuesday. Lamar Advertising has a fifty-two week low of $108.80 and a fifty-two week high of $139.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.48, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.56. The company’s fifty day moving average is $123.06 and its 200 day moving average is $127.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.56 billion, a PE ratio of 31.97 and a beta of 1.53.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.74. The firm 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Lamar Advertising will post 7.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lamar Advertising Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $1.55 dividend. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.49%. 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 currently 175.64%.

Lamar Advertising 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.