Financial Review: Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) & Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) and Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Uniti Group and Lamar Advertising’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Uniti Group	1.43%	-0.68%	0.33%
Lamar Advertising	23.29%	41.86%	7.61%

Dividends

Uniti Group pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.2%. Lamar Advertising pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Uniti Group pays out 1,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Lamar Advertising pays out 106.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Uniti Group and Lamar Advertising, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Uniti Group	1	1	2	0	2.25
Lamar Advertising	0	3	1	0	2.25

Uniti Group currently has a consensus target price of $6.25, suggesting a potential upside of 68.92%. Lamar Advertising has a consensus target price of $119.00, suggesting a potential downside of 1.26%. Given Uniti Group’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Uniti Group is more favorable than Lamar Advertising.

Risk and Volatility

Uniti Group has a beta of 1.29, indicating that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lamar Advertising has a beta of 1.52, indicating that its stock price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

87.5% of Uniti Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.8% of Lamar Advertising shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Uniti Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.0% of Lamar Advertising shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Uniti Group and Lamar Advertising’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Uniti Group	$1.15 billion	0.78	-$81.71 million	$0.06	61.67
Lamar Advertising	$2.11 billion	5.84	$495.76 million	$4.87	24.75

Lamar Advertising has higher revenue and earnings than Uniti Group. Lamar Advertising is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Uniti Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Lamar Advertising beats Uniti Group on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Uniti Group

Uniti, an internally managed real estate investment trust, is engaged in the acquisition and construction of mission critical communications infrastructure, and is a leading provider of fiber and other wireless solutions for the communications industry. As of December 31, 2023, Uniti owns approximately 140,000 fiber route miles, 8.5 million fiber strand miles, and other communications real estate throughout the United States.

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. Lamar Advertising Company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.