Louisiana-Pacific Co. (NYSE:LPX) Given Average Rating of “Buy” by Brokerages

Louisiana-Pacific Co. (NYSE:LPX – Get Rating) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $85.60.

A number of research firms have issued reports on LPX. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Louisiana-Pacific in a research report on Wednesday, February 23rd. TD Securities raised shares of Louisiana-Pacific from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $80.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Louisiana-Pacific from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $59.00 to $84.00 in a research report on Friday, January 21st. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Louisiana-Pacific in a research report on Thursday, March 31st. They set a “hold” rating for the company.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bessemer Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Louisiana-Pacific during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Rather & Kittrell Inc. acquired a new stake in Louisiana-Pacific in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Cordasco Financial Network acquired a new stake in Louisiana-Pacific in the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Ellevest Inc. grew its stake in Louisiana-Pacific by 271.7% in the 4th quarter. Ellevest Inc. now owns 814 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its stake in Louisiana-Pacific by 51.5% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,147 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock valued at $90,000 after acquiring an additional 390 shares during the period. 98.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shares of Louisiana-Pacific stock traded up $0.26 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $65.40. The company had a trading volume of 7,139 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,157,103. The stock has a market cap of $5.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.68 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.33. Louisiana-Pacific has a 12-month low of $50.12 and a 12-month high of $79.77.

Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 22nd. The building manufacturing company reported $2.24 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $1.86 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $992.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $912.74 million. Louisiana-Pacific had a net margin of 30.24% and a return on equity of 100.29%. Louisiana-Pacific’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.01 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Louisiana-Pacific will post 13.02 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a boost from Louisiana-Pacific’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 25th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.35%. Louisiana-Pacific’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.30%.

About Louisiana-Pacific (Get Rating)

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets building products primarily for use in new home construction, repair and remodeling, and outdoor structure markets. It operates through four segments: Siding; Oriented Strand Board (OSB); Engineered Wood Products (EWP); and South America.

Read More