Contrasting Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP)

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE:BIP) and Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ:LAMR) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, profitability and risk.

Dividends

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Lamar Advertising pays an annual dividend of $6.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners pays out 256.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Lamar Advertising pays out 145.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has raised its dividend for 18 consecutive years and Lamar Advertising has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

57.9% of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.8% of Lamar Advertising shares are held by institutional investors. 15.0% of Lamar Advertising shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Lamar Advertising”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	$22.24 billion	0.75	$351.00 million	$0.67	53.83
Lamar Advertising	$2.25 billion	5.96	$361.87 million	$4.26	31.10

Lamar Advertising has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. Lamar Advertising is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lamar Advertising has a beta of 1.36, suggesting that its stock price is 36% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Lamar Advertising, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	0	3	4	2	2.89
Lamar Advertising	0	4	1	0	2.20

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners currently has a consensus price target of $40.43, indicating a potential upside of 12.09%. Lamar Advertising has a consensus price target of $131.75, indicating a potential downside of 0.55%. Given Brookfield Infrastructure Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is more favorable than Lamar Advertising.

Profitability

This table compares Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Lamar Advertising’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners	1.54%	1.15%	0.31%
Lamar Advertising	19.72%	41.85%	6.68%

Summary

Lamar Advertising beats Brookfield Infrastructure Partners on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Brookfield Infrastructure Partners

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. owns and operates utilities, transport, midstream, and data businesses in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's Utilities segment operates approximately 2,900 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 8.1 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 0.6 million long-term contracted sub-metering services. This segment also offers heating, cooling, and energy solutions; gas distribution; water heaters; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioner rental, as well as other home services. Its Transport segment offers transportation, storage, and handling services for merchandise goods, commodities, and passengers through a network of approximately 22,000 km of track; 5,500 km of track network; 9,800 km of rail; and 3,300 km of motorways. The company's Midstream segment offers natural gas transmission, gathering and processing, and storage services through approximately 15,000 km of natural gas transmission pipelines; 570 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage; 17 natural gas processing plants; and 10,600 km of gas gathering pipelines, as well as 525,000 tonnes polypropylene production capacity. Its Data segment operates approximately 228,000 operational telecom towers; approximately 54,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables; approximately 1 million fiber-to-the-premise connections; two semiconductor manufacturing facilities; and 70 distributed antenna systems, as well as 135 data centers and 750 megawatts of critical load capacity and an additional approximate 670 megawatts of contracted capacity. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. operates as a subsidiary of Brookfield Corporation.

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.