Insider Selling: Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) SVP Sells 800 Shares of Stock

Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) SVP James Rickard Donovan sold 800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.42, for a total transaction of $52,336.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,568 shares in the company, valued at $625,938.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Lakeland Financial Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of Lakeland Financial stock traded up $1.34 on Monday, hitting $66.82. The stock had a trading volume of 44,607 shares, compared to its average volume of 114,001. Lakeland Financial Co. has a one year low of $44.47 and a one year high of $73.22. The stock has a market cap of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09 and a beta of 0.66. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $65.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $62.99.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $68.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $60.70 million. Lakeland Financial had a net margin of 23.70% and a return on equity of 14.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.57 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lakeland Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 25th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 25th. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.04%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Lakeland Financial from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.00.

Institutional Trading of Lakeland Financial

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lakeland Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 342.5% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 593 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares during the last quarter. First Merchants Corp purchased a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial in the 2nd quarter worth about $215,000. Sippican Capital Advisors purchased a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial in the 1st quarter worth about $223,000. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial in the 4th quarter worth about $282,000. 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.