Louisiana-Pacific Co. (NYSE:LPX) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Louisiana-Pacific Co. (NYSE:LPX) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $74.75.

LPX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Securities increased their price target on Louisiana-Pacific from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $76.00 target price on shares of Louisiana-Pacific in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. TheStreet cut Louisiana-Pacific from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Louisiana-Pacific from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Loop Capital initiated coverage on Louisiana-Pacific in a research note on Friday. They set a “hold” rating and a $82.00 target price for the company.

Louisiana-Pacific Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:LPX opened at $74.31 on Friday. Louisiana-Pacific has a 1 year low of $49.47 and a 1 year high of $84.54. The stock has a market cap of $5.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.33 and a beta of 1.87. The business has a fifty day moving average of $77.05 and a 200-day moving average of $68.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 3.00.

Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The building manufacturing company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.17. Louisiana-Pacific had a return on equity of 15.65% and a net margin of 6.90%. The company had revenue of $658.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $618.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Louisiana-Pacific will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Louisiana-Pacific Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.40%. This is an increase from Louisiana-Pacific’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. Louisiana-Pacific’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.45%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Lizanne C. Gottung sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.58, for a total transaction of $193,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 25,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,016,692.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Louisiana-Pacific

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Eminence Capital LP lifted its stake in Louisiana-Pacific by 31.4% in the 4th quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 2,056,991 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock worth $145,697,000 after acquiring an additional 491,641 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Louisiana-Pacific by 83.8% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,563,117 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock worth $110,717,000 after acquiring an additional 712,671 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Louisiana-Pacific by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,136,025 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock worth $80,465,000 after acquiring an additional 103,249 shares in the last quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Louisiana-Pacific during the 4th quarter worth about $73,662,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Louisiana-Pacific by 57.8% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 796,563 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock worth $44,026,000 after purchasing an additional 291,833 shares in the last quarter. 94.73% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Louisiana-Pacific Company Profile

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides building solutions primarily for use in new home construction, repair and remodeling, and outdoor structure markets. It operates through Siding, Oriented Strand Board, LP South America, and Other segments. The Siding segment offers LP SmartSide trim and siding products, LP SmartSide ExpertFinish trim and siding products, LP BuilderSeries lap siding products, and LP Outdoor Building Solutions; and engineered wood siding, trim, soffit, and fascia products.