Lamar Advertising Co (LAMR): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ:LAMR) investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.

In the 21st century investor’s toolkit, there are plenty of metrics market participants can use to track Mr. Market. Some of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the top investment managers can outclass their index-focused peers by a significant amount (see just how much).

Just as integral, optimistic insider trading sentiment is another way to parse down the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are many stimuli for a corporate insider to sell shares of his or her company, but just one, very clear reason why they would behave bullishly. Several empirical studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this strategy if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

With these “truths” under our belt, let’s take a glance at the key action surrounding Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ:LAMR).

What have hedge funds been doing with Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ:LAMR)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 47 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 24% from one quarter earlier. With the smart money’s sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings significantly.

When looking at the hedgies we track, John H. Scully’s SPO Advisory Corp had the largest position in Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ:LAMR), worth close to $404.1 million, comprising 5.5% of its total 13F portfolio. On SPO Advisory Corp’s heels is Perry Capital, managed by Richard Perry, which held a $283.2 million position; 9% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds that hold long positions include Mason Hawkins’s Southeastern Asset Management, Christian Leone’s Luxor Capital Group and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, some big names have been driving this bullishness. Tiger Consumer Management, managed by Patrick McCormack, assembled the most outsized position in Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ:LAMR). Tiger Consumer Management had 70.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Bader’s Halcyon Asset Management also initiated a $25.7 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new LAMR positions are Alexander Mitchell’s Scopus Asset Management, SAC Subsidiary’s CR Intrinsic Investors, and Tom Sandell’s Sandell Asset Management.

How are insiders trading Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ:LAMR)?

Bullish insider trading is at its handiest when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time frame, Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ:LAMR) has seen zero unique insiders buying, and 7 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also take a look at hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ:LAMR). These stocks are Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW), WPP PLC (ADR) (NASDAQ:WPPGY), Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC), Focus Media Holding Limited (ADR) (NASDAQ:FMCN), and Interpublic Group of Companies Inc (NYSE:IPG). This group of stocks are the members of the advertising agencies industry and their market caps are similar to LAMR’s market cap.