D.A. Davidson & CO. Lowers Stake in Louisiana-Pacific Co. (NYSE:LPX)

D.A. Davidson & CO. lowered its stake in shares of Louisiana-Pacific Co. (NYSE:LPX) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,117 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock after selling 1,391 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO. owned 0.05% of Louisiana-Pacific worth $3,844,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LPX. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Louisiana-Pacific by 11,417.9% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,106,410 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock worth $118,895,000 after buying an additional 1,096,804 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Louisiana-Pacific by 25.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,167,946 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock worth $340,427,000 after buying an additional 638,058 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Louisiana-Pacific by 215.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 470,167 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock worth $48,686,000 after buying an additional 320,912 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Louisiana-Pacific by 10.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,154,561 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock worth $231,529,000 after buying an additional 210,113 shares during the period. Finally, Bamco Inc. NY lifted its holdings in Louisiana-Pacific by 65.7% during the third quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 516,472 shares of the building manufacturing company’s stock worth $55,500,000 after buying an additional 204,828 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.73% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on LPX shares. TD Securities decreased their price objective on Louisiana-Pacific from $123.00 to $117.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Louisiana-Pacific from $90.00 to $99.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com lowered Louisiana-Pacific from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, November 10th. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Louisiana-Pacific from $125.00 to $123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Louisiana-Pacific in a report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $108.00.

Louisiana-Pacific Price Performance

NYSE LPX opened at $100.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.92 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $110.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $106.44. Louisiana-Pacific Co. has a 1 year low of $66.77 and a 1 year high of $122.87. The company has a market cap of $7.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.41, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.95.

Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:LPX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The building manufacturing company reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $681.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $666.75 million. Louisiana-Pacific had a return on equity of 24.50% and a net margin of 14.29%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Louisiana-Pacific Co. will post 5.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Louisiana-Pacific Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is an increase from Louisiana-Pacific’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. Louisiana-Pacific’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.93%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Louisiana-Pacific news, Director Lizanne C. Gottung sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.50, for a total transaction of $283,750.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 18,513 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,101,225.50. This trade represents a 11.90 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Louisiana-Pacific Company Profile

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides building solutions primarily for use in new home construction, repair and remodeling, and outdoor structure markets. It operates through Siding, Oriented Strand Board, LP South America, and Other segments. The Siding segment offers LP SmartSide trim and siding products, LP SmartSide ExpertFinish trim and siding products, LP BuilderSeries lap siding products, and LP Outdoor Building Solutions; and engineered wood siding, trim, soffit, and fascia products.