Contrasting Lamar Advertising (LAMR) and The Competition

Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) is one of 35 publicly-traded companies in the “Specialized REITs” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Lamar Advertising to similar businesses based on the strength of its profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Lamar Advertising and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lamar Advertising	23.90%	54.94%	8.04%
Lamar Advertising Competitors	-5.42%	-3.45%	2.01%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lamar Advertising and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lamar Advertising	$2.27 billion	$587.15 million	28.77
Lamar Advertising Competitors	$2.59 billion	$596.00 million	32.09

Lamar Advertising’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Lamar Advertising. Lamar Advertising is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Lamar Advertising pays an annual dividend of $6.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Lamar Advertising pays out 120.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Specialized REITs” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.4% and pay out 120.7% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Lamar Advertising has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Lamar Advertising is clearly a better dividend stock than its competitors, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

Lamar Advertising has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lamar Advertising’s competitors have a beta of 0.92, meaning that their average share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

93.8% of Lamar Advertising shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.0% of shares of all “Specialized REITs” companies are held by institutional investors. 15.2% of Lamar Advertising shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 7.5% of shares of all “Specialized REITs” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Lamar Advertising and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lamar Advertising	0	3	2	0	2.40
Lamar Advertising Competitors	516	2769	3655	191	2.49

Lamar Advertising presently has a consensus target price of $161.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.12%. As a group, “Specialized REITs” companies have a potential upside of 16.26%. Given Lamar Advertising’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Lamar Advertising has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Summary

Lamar Advertising beats its competitors on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

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.