Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) EVP Sells $92,910.00 in Stock

Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) EVP Stephanie R. Leniski sold 1,500 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.94, for a total value of $92,910.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,211 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Lakeland Financial Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of LKFN opened at $60.80 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $66.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.72. Lakeland Financial Co. has a 52 week low of $57.45 and a 52 week high of $78.61. The stock has a market cap of $1.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.75 and a beta of 0.63.

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

Lakeland Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 5th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, January 25th were given a $0.50 dividend. This is a boost from Lakeland Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. Lakeland Financial’s payout ratio is currently 55.10%.

Institutional Trading of Lakeland Financial

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LKFN. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in Lakeland Financial in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in Lakeland Financial in the 4th quarter worth approximately $50,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Lakeland Financial by 809.9% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 737 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 656 shares during the last quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in Lakeland Financial in the 4th quarter worth approximately $53,000. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in Lakeland Financial in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $74,000. 81.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.