Lakeland Financial Co. (LKFN) To Go Ex-Dividend on January 24th

Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Saturday, January 25th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, February 5th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This is a positive change from Lakeland Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Lakeland Financial has increased its dividend by an average of 12.2% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Lakeland Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 53.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Lakeland Financial to earn $3.61 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.4%.

Lakeland Financial Stock Down 0.4 %

LKFN stock opened at $68.13 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $71.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.51. The firm has a market cap of $1.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.70 and a beta of 0.69. Lakeland Financial has a 12 month low of $57.45 and a 12 month high of $78.61.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $106.94 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $59.90 million. Lakeland Financial had a net margin of 22.85% and a return on equity of 13.64%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Lakeland Financial will post 3.43 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 3,959 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.50, for a total value of $290,986.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 32,475 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,386,912.50. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders sold a total of 4,150 shares of company stock worth $305,327 in the last ninety days. 3.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Lakeland Financial

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.