Boston Trust Walden Corp Sells 10,305 Shares of Lamar Advertising Company $LAMR

Key Points

• Boston Trust Walden reduced its Lamar Advertising stake by 3.3%, selling 10,305 shares in the third quarter; it retained 302,463 shares, valued at about $43.6 million.
• Analysts’ consensus rating was Hold, with an average price target of $161; two analysts rated the stock Buy and three rated it Hold.
• Lamar reported quarterly EPS of $1.58, in line with estimates, while revenue of $616.75 million topped forecasts. It also raised its quarterly dividend from $1.60 to $1.65 per share.

Boston Trust Walden Corp cut its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR - Free Report) by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 302,463 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock after selling 10,305 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp owned 0.30% of Lamar Advertising worth $43,588,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in Lamar Advertising by 4.8% in the third quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 1,607 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $232,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 8,821 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $1,117,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL grew its holdings in shares of Lamar Advertising by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 7,523 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $953,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its holdings in shares of Lamar Advertising by 53.8% during the 2nd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 243 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, World Investment Advisors grew its holdings in shares of Lamar Advertising by 3.6% during the 1st quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 2,736 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $347,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. 93.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LAMR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Lamar Advertising from $153.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Lamar Advertising in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Morgan Stanley set a $170.00 price objective on shares of Lamar Advertising in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Lamar Advertising from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their target price for the company from $145.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Lamar Advertising from $151.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $161.00.

Lamar Advertising Stock Performance

Shares of LAMR stock opened at $158.58 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.29, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The company's fifty day moving average price is $149.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $145.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.32 and a beta of 1.23. Lamar Advertising Company has a 12 month low of $117.52 and a 12 month high of $166.33.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.58. Lamar Advertising had a return on equity of 54.94% and a net margin of 23.90%. The company had revenue of $616.75 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $606.61 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Lamar Advertising Company will post 8.40 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lamar Advertising Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 21st were paid a dividend of $1.65 per share. This is a boost from Lamar Advertising's previous quarterly dividend of $1.60. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 21st. This represents a $6.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. Lamar Advertising's payout ratio is 120.44%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lamar Advertising news, Director Thomas Reifenheiser sold 8,099 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.03, for a total transaction of $1,206,993.97. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 36,387 shares in the company, valued at $5,422,754.61. This trade represents a 18.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 15.24% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Lamar Advertising

Lamar Advertising Company is an outdoor advertising company that provides businesses with advertising displays across the United States. Its offerings include traditional and digital billboards, bulletin and poster displays, transit advertising, and other out-of-home media formats.

The company also provides logo sign and tourist-oriented directional signage services through displays located along highways and other major transportation routes. Its digital advertising network allows advertisers to deliver messages that can be updated more frequently than traditional static signage.

Lamar traces its roots to 1902 and is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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