New York State Common Retirement Fund Trims Stake in Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its position in Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) by 6.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 49,155 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 3,659 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Lamar Advertising were worth $5,984,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LAMR. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of Lamar Advertising by 2.9% in 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 buying an additional 119,068 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Lamar Advertising by 0.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,640,356 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $352,752,000 after acquiring an additional 21,852 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Lamar Advertising by 4.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,054,962 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $274,595,000 after purchasing an additional 90,775 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Lamar Advertising by 45.5% during 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 last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $200,093,000 after purchasing an additional 90,933 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on LAMR shares. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Lamar Advertising from $142.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Lamar Advertising from $132.00 to $124.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Lamar Advertising from $121.76 to $128.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Lamar Advertising from $129.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Lamar Advertising from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Five 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $134.60.

Lamar Advertising Stock Performance

Lamar Advertising stock opened at $122.16 on Friday. Lamar Advertising has a fifty-two week low of $108.23 and a fifty-two week high of $139.88. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $124.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $127.63. 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 stock has a market cap of $12.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.61 and a beta of 1.51.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.47 by $0.74. The company had revenue of $579.57 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $583.19 million. Lamar Advertising had a return on equity of 30.20% and a net margin of 16.40%. As a group, 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $1.55 dividend. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Lamar Advertising’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. Lamar Advertising’s payout ratio 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.