Virtus Fund Advisers LLC Makes New $49,000 Investment in OUTFRONT Media Inc. (NYSE:OUT)

Virtus Fund Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in OUTFRONT Media Inc. (NYSE:OUT) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,677 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $49,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC increased its holdings in OUTFRONT Media by 13.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,711,791 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $123,363,000 after buying an additional 803,292 shares during the last quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of OUTFRONT Media by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 3,126,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $44,703,000 after acquiring an additional 327,125 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of OUTFRONT Media by 10.9% in the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 2,137,548 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,567,000 after acquiring an additional 210,208 shares during the last quarter. Land & Buildings Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of OUTFRONT Media during the 2nd quarter worth about $22,724,000. Finally, ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its stake in OUTFRONT Media by 2.7% during the third quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 1,446,420 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,585,000 after purchasing an additional 38,327 shares during the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $21.00 price target on shares of OUTFRONT Media in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of OUTFRONT Media from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of OUTFRONT Media in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $22.00 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com lowered OUTFRONT Media from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.25.

OUTFRONT Media Stock Performance

Shares of OUTFRONT Media stock opened at $18.91 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.50. OUTFRONT Media Inc. has a 12 month low of $12.13 and a 12 month high of $19.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.80, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.00, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.65.

OUTFRONT Media (NYSE:OUT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The financial services provider reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.20). OUTFRONT Media had a net margin of 13.30% and a return on equity of 40.33%. The business had revenue of $451.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $456.38 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.46 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that OUTFRONT Media Inc. will post 1.56 earnings per share for the current year.

OUTFRONT Media Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a special dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. OUTFRONT Media’s dividend payout ratio is presently 87.59%.

OUTFRONT Media Profile

OUTFRONT leverages the power of technology, location, and creativity to connect brands with consumers outside of their homes through one of the largest and most diverse sets of billboard, transit, and mobile assets in North America. Through its technology platform, OUTFRONT will fundamentally change the ways advertisers engage audiences on-the-go.