Lamar’s stock has almost doubled in the past 10 years from $54.11 at December 31, 2014 to $103.98 as of yesterday.  What’s the secret sauce?  Grow revenues and mind expenses.  Lamar’s CEO Sean Reilly says that Lamar’s acquisitions include steel, ad contracts and leases but not buildings or people.  This means that cashflow increases rapidly and the company becomes more efficient.  Here are the highlights of Billboard Insider’s review of the last 10 years of Lamar financials.

Grow revenues

Lamar revenue has grown 6%/year from $1.2 billion in 2014 to $2 billion in 2022.  A good portion of that has come from $3.7 billion in acquisitions.  The remaining growth has come from new digital billboards.

Mind expenses

Lamar’s tuck-in acquisition strategy works.  Revenues have grown faster than expenses in 6 of the past 8 years.  Lamar’s 2022 workforce was smaller Lamar’s 2018 workforce even though revenues had grown by 25%.  Lamar is a more efficient company each year, as evidenced by the cashflow margin which has increased from 41.5% in 2014 to 45% in 2022.

Increased cashflow

Lamar’s cashflow has growth 7%/year from $534 million in 2014 to $913 million in 2022 and the trend has continued during the first 9 months of 2023.   Lamar’s acquisitions and capital spending turn into cashflow growth, unlike OUTFRONT, which has barely grown cashflow in the course of 10 years.

Here’s the raw data.

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