Stephanie R. Leniski Sells 1,500 Shares of Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) Stock

Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) EVP Stephanie R. Leniski sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.94, for a total transaction of $92,910.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,211 shares in the company, valued at $384,709.34. The trade was a 19.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Lakeland Financial Price Performance

LKFN opened at $61.95 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $66.25 and its 200 day moving average is $67.77. Lakeland Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $57.45 and a fifty-two week high of $78.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.07 and a beta of 0.63.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.05. Lakeland Financial had a net margin of 21.74% and a return on equity of 13.31%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Lakeland Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 5th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, January 25th were given a $0.50 dividend. This is a positive change from Lakeland Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 24th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.23%. Lakeland Financial’s payout ratio is currently 55.10%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $74.00 price target (up from $73.00) on shares of Lakeland Financial in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

Institutional Trading of Lakeland Financial

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LKFN. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Lakeland Financial in the fourth quarter worth about $23,111,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in Lakeland Financial in the fourth quarter worth about $10,560,000. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in Lakeland Financial by 54.0% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 307,242 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,126,000 after acquiring an additional 107,765 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Lakeland Financial by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,940,356 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $133,419,000 after acquiring an additional 100,001 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Lakeland Financial by 132.2% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 134,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,248,000 after acquiring an additional 76,562 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.15% of the company’s stock.

Lakeland Financial Company Profile

Lakeland Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Lake City Bank that provides various banking products and services in the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, such as noninterest bearing, interest-bearing checking, savings, money market, NOW, and demand deposits.