Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $3.04 Million Stock Holdings in Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB trimmed its position in shares of Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,981 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Lamar Advertising were worth $3,041,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising by 2.9% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,248,660 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $567,632,000 after purchasing an additional 119,068 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising by 0.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 21,852 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising by 4.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,054,962 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $274,595,000 after acquiring an additional 90,775 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 617,356 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Lamar Advertising by 6.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,497,702 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $200,093,000 after acquiring an additional 90,933 shares during the period. 93.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on LAMR. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Lamar Advertising from $129.00 to $126.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Lamar Advertising from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Lamar Advertising from $142.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Lamar Advertising from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Lamar Advertising has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $133.40.

Lamar Advertising Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of LAMR stock opened at $123.65 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $12.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.03 and a beta of 1.51. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $124.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $127.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.48, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.56. Lamar Advertising has a fifty-two week low of $107.22 and a fifty-two week high of $139.88.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.74. The business had revenue of $579.57 million during 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%. Research analysts forecast that Lamar Advertising will post 7.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Lamar Advertising Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.55 per share. This is an increase from Lamar Advertising’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $6.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.01%. Lamar Advertising’s payout ratio is currently 175.64%.

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.