Share count
102Mpeak FY2024
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LAMR, Lamar Advertising
Lamar Advertising Company is one of the largest outdoor advertising companies in the United States based on number of displays and has operated under the Lamar name since 1902.
We offer our customers a fully integrated service, satisfying all aspects of their display requirements from ad copy production to placement and maintenance.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
$2.3B
+2.7% YoY · 8% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $528M +4.5% vs yr-ago qtr
Operating margin 27.7% yr-ago 37.8%
Net income $102M yr-ago $139M
Net margin 19.3% yr-ago 27.5%
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What moves the needle
- Occupancy, rents, and the cost of debt. Read on funds from operations and net asset value, because GAAP depreciation distorts the earnings, and a property downturn meets a balance sheet built on leverage. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on concentrated dependence, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Funds from operations per share have compounded about 6% a year across the record. Debt is 51% of assets, moderate for a REIT. The quality and location of the properties, the lease terms and occupancy, and the cost of the debt are what the 10-K settles, and no single ratio captures them.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||||
| $1.5B | $1.5B | $1.6B | $1.8B | $1.6B | $1.8B | $2.0B | $2.1B | $2.2B | $2.3B | $2.3B | RevenueRevenue |
| $299M | $318M | $305M | $372M | $243M | $388M | $439M | $496M | $362M | $587M | $550M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||||
| $489M | $524M | $538M | $615M | $486M | $657M | $772M | $784M | $819M | $838M | $861M | Funds from operationsFFO |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||||
| $3.0B | $3.1B | $3.2B | $3.3B | $3.3B | $3.4B | $3.7B | $3.9B | $4.2B | $4.3B | $4.3B | Real estate (gross)RE gross |
| $3.9B | $4.2B | $4.5B | $5.9B | $5.8B | $6.0B | $6.5B | $6.6B | $6.6B | $6.9B | $6.9B | Total assetsAssets |
| 60% | 61% | 64% | 50% | 50% | 50% | 51% | 51% | 49% | 49% | 51% | Debt / assetsDebt/assets |
| $2.3B | $2.6B | $2.9B | $3.0B | $2.9B | $3.0B | $3.3B | $3.3B | $3.2B | $3.4B | $3.5B | Total debtDebt |
| $2.3B | $2.4B | $2.9B | $3.0B | $2.8B | $2.9B | $3.3B | $3.3B | $3.2B | $3.4B | $3.5B | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| 3.5× | 3.5× | 3.6× | 3.4× | 3.0× | 4.9× | 4.5× | 3.9× | 3.1× | 4.8× | 4.5× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| $1.1B | $1.1B | $1.1B | $1.2B | $1.2B | $1.2B | $1.2B | $1.2B | $1.0B | $1.0B | $982M | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||||
| 97.7M | 98.4M | 99.1M | 100M | 101M | 101M | 102M | 102M | 103M | 102M | 101M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $5.00 | $5.33 | $5.43 | $6.13 | $4.81 | $6.49 | $7.60 | $7.68 | $7.98 | $8.24 | $8.49 | FFO / shareFFO/sh |
| $10.95 | $11.22 | $11.42 | $11.77 | $11.92 | $12.01 | $11.76 | $11.92 | $10.22 | $10.08 | $9.68 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 9-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +4.2%/yr | +7.5%/yr |
| Owner earnings / share | +5.3%/yr | +6.0%/yr |
| EPS | +7.3%/yr | +19.1%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | +5.5%/yr | +23.6%/yr |
| Book value / share | −0.9%/yr | −3.3%/yr |
The year, in the company's words
the filing →Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction, and stated figures check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.
- Revenue+2.7%
“Net revenues for the year ended December 31, 2025, as compared to acquisition-adjusted net revenues for the comparable period in 2024, increased $45.6 million, or 2.1%. This increase was attributable to an increase of $47.8 million in billboard net revenues and an increase of $3.9 million in logo net revenues, offset by a decrease of $2.7 million in transit net revenues.”
✓ figure matches the filed record
The record, charted
FY2016–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
Revenue
$2.3Blow FY2016
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →
Is it a good business?
- about $8.24 per shareNet income $587M + depreciation $326M − gains on sale $76M
What this means
GAAP net income with property depreciation added back, because the buildings a REIT charges against earnings usually hold or grow their value. This, not net income, is what a REIT is actually priced on. It is an approximation here: where a filing reports gains on property sales, we remove them, the way the NAREIT definition does.
- Not enough data
What this means
FFO or dividends missing.
Is it sound?
- Debt / assets 49%ModerateTotal debt $3.4B ÷ assets $6.9BIndustry peers: median 49%
What this means
Every REIT runs on leverage; how much is the question. Heavy debt is what turns a property downturn into a wipeout, as 2008 showed, so a conservative balance sheet is part of the moat here, not a drag on it.
- Strong(operating income + depreciation) ÷ interest $160MIndustry peers: median 3.2×
What this means
How many times the property cash earnings cover the interest bill. Comfortable coverage is what lets a REIT refinance through a tight credit market instead of being forced to sell into one.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Low contestabilityThe moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.
In its own filing Raised, but not as a competitor
The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product.
AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
Current assets$426M
- Cash & short-term investments$39M
- Receivables$324M
- Other current assets$64M
Current liabilities$735M
- Debt due within a year$242M
- Accounts payable$16M
- Other current liabilities$477M
Current ratio0.58×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio0.58×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.05×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital($309M)the cushion left after near-term bills
Debt due this year vs. cash$242M due · $39M cash
cash alone won't cover the maturities; it leans on refinancing or operating cash · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+4.5%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters0.4× → 0.6×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value($2.3B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($5.5B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$4.9B$1.4B of it operating leases; with finance leases, “total fixed claims” below reaches $4.9B (annual-report basis)
Deferred revenue$165Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float
From the company's latest filing.
Lease obligations
the lease note, SEC EDGAR →Debt by another name. What the business owes on the property, aircraft, stores and equipment it rents rather than owns is a fixed claim due on a schedule; added back to the debt, it is the true leverage. That ladder, and what it adds to the debt on the page above.
Lease payments by year, scaled to the largest; “later” is everything beyond year five, shown apart. These are the contractual cash payments, before the interest the filing imputes back out to the balance-sheet liability.
Due in the next 12 months$269Ma fixed cash payment, owed whether or not the business has a good year
Total lease payments$2.1Bevery year plus the tail, undiscounted: the full cash the leases will take
On the balance sheet$1.5Bthe present value of those payments, the recognised lease liability
True leverage: debt plus leases
On-balance-sheet debt$3.4B
Lease obligations (present value)$1.5B
Total fixed claims on the business$4.9B
Counting the leases the way Buffett does, the fixed claims on this business come to $4.9B, of which the leases are 30%. The lease wall above and the debt schedule together are the calendar of what must be paid, and when.
Lease ladder read from the ASC 842 tags in the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled: the yearly buckets sum to the undiscounted total, which less the imputed interest equals the balance-sheet liability; a ladder that doesn’t tie out is withheld.
Acquisitions & goodwill
from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow recordGoodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.
Goodwill & intangibles$3.2B47% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired
Against book equityexceeds itgoodwill alone is larger than the company’s entire book equity; stripped of the acquisition premium, there is no net book worth
Cash spent acquiring$2.8Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $1.3B of capital spent building
None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.
Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.
| Fiscal year | Chief executive | Pay, as filed | “Actually paid” | Owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Mr. Sean E. Reilly | $5.9M | $3.6M | $608M |
| 2022 | Mr. Sean E. Reilly | $6.1M | $5.8M | $615M |
| 2023 | Mr. Sean E. Reilly | $6.3M | $6.9M | $605M |
| 2024 | Mr. Sean E. Reilly | $9.4M | $8.5M | $748M |
| 2025 | Mr. Sean E. Reilly | $8.5M | $10.8M | $683M |
Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.
- Insider ownership15.2%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
- Stock-based compensation$34M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 1% of revenue, equal to 4% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Income taxes, Acquisitions, Contingencies as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →
The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.
Peers, Specialty REITs
The same industry, side by side on the REIT lens. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | FFO margin | FFO / assets | Payout (FFO) | Debt / assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WYWeyerhaeuser | $6.9B | 17% | 7.5% | 74% | 33% |
| IRMIron Mountain Inc | $6.9B | 20% | 6.5% | 73% | 66% |
| LINELineage Inc. | $5.4B | 13% | 3.6% | 48% | 32% |
| COLDAmericold | $2.6B | 10% | 3.5% | 73% | 56% |
| LAMRLamar Advertising | $2.3B | 36% | 11.9% | — | 51% |
| OUTOUTFRONT Media Inc. | $1.8B | 16% | 5.1% | 70% | 48% |
| HHHHoward Hughes Holdings Inc. | $1.5B | 19% | 2.9% | — | 55% |
| EPREPR Properties | $718M | 53% | 5.7% | 80% | 49% |
| Group median | — | 18% | 5.4% | — | 50% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
price / FFOA REIT is priced on a multiple of its funds from operations (FFO), the cash it earns once the depreciation on its buildings is added back. Type today’s price; we show the multiple you would pay and the income and growth it implies.
$
The assumptions
FFO / share, delivered10%/yr’20→’25
The justified multiple is 1 ÷ (required return − growth), a perpetuity on FFO. At an 8% required return and 3% growth, a REIT is worth about 20× FFO.
Enter a price above to run it.
Price / FFO—
Justified by growth—
Dividend yield—
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
FFO about $8.49 per share on 101M shares. The dials set the multiple they justify; your price sets the multiple you are paying. FFO here adds back depreciation and removes property-sale gains, the NAREIT method; it does not net out maintenance capex (AFFO), occupancy or lease terms, which the 10-K does.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "Lamar Advertising (LAMR), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/LAMR, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← LADR its page in the Manual LANC →
Industry order: ← LADR the REITs — Specialty & Diversified chapter LAND →