Berkshire Hathaway Inc Purchases New Holdings in Lamar Advertising Company $LAMR

Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new stake in Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,169,507 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $141,931,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Lamar Advertising by 27.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,344,637 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $284,577,000 after buying an additional 510,025 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lamar Advertising by 123.8% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,475,525 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $177,152,000 after purchasing an additional 816,217 shares in the last quarter. Hamlin Capital Management LLC grew its position in Lamar Advertising by 2.1% in the second quarter. Hamlin Capital Management LLC now owns 1,338,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $162,431,000 after acquiring an additional 26,893 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in Lamar Advertising by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 1,299,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $157,697,000 after purchasing an additional 5,080 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Lamar Advertising by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,282,892 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $145,967,000 after acquiring an additional 4,495 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on LAMR. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Lamar Advertising in a report on Monday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Lamar Advertising from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Lamar Advertising from $122.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.75.

Lamar Advertising Stock Down 0.9%

LAMR opened at $128.00 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $124.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $123.79. Lamar Advertising Company has a one year low of $99.84 and a one year high of $134.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.04, a current ratio of 0.59 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.14 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $585.54 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $584.00 million. Lamar Advertising had a net margin of 19.27% and a return on equity of 43.02%. Equities research analysts expect that Lamar Advertising Company will post 7.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lamar Advertising Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 22nd will be given a dividend of $1.55 per share. This represents a $6.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 22nd. Lamar Advertising’s payout ratio is presently 145.54%.

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.