Why Lamar Advertising Stock Rocketed Over 35% at the Open on May 7

Shares of billboard specialist Lamar Advertising (NASDAQ: LAMR) rose an incredible 35.9% when the market opened for trading on May 7. Put another way, the stock price increased by more than a third in less than 30 minutes. It gave back part of that gain by 10:30 a.m. EDT, but it was still up nearly 20%. That said, the real estate investment trust (REIT) remains lower by around 30% for the year. The catalyst for the clear reversal in investor opinion was earnings, or, more precisely, management's comments about the future.

Lamar is pretty clear about the biggest target audience for its billboards: drivers. With efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 centering around closing nonessential businesses and asking people to stay home, investors have been worried that the REIT's business would falter badly. The first quarter was actually pretty good, but it didn't include much of an impact from COVID-19 because of the timing of the end of the quarter. Of note, revenue and adjusted funds from operations were both higher year over year, up 5.8% and 13%, respectively.

Image source: Getty Images.

Source Fool.com