LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) Coverage Initiated at Raymond James

Research analysts at Raymond James initiated coverage on shares of LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage set an “underperform” rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on LPL Financial from $252.00 to $254.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on LPL Financial from $254.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group raised their price target on LPL Financial from $260.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on LPL Financial from $266.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of LPL Financial in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, LPL Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $260.55.

LPL Financial Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of LPLA opened at $260.30 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.77, a current ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. LPL Financial has a 12-month low of $179.00 and a 12-month high of $274.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.44 billion, a PE ratio of 19.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $259.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $239.35.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $3.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.33 by $0.18. LPL Financial had a return on equity of 57.68% and a net margin of 10.61%. The business had revenue of $2.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.21 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that LPL Financial will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Dan H. Arnold sold 34,807 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.54, for a total value of $9,277,457.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 141,810 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,798,037.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Dan H. Arnold sold 34,807 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.54, for a total value of $9,277,457.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 141,810 shares in the company, valued at $37,798,037.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Dan H. Arnold sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.35, for a total value of $2,563,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 137,044 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,131,229.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 60,151 shares of company stock worth $15,911,088 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On LPL Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LPLA. Reinhart Partners LLC. lifted its position in LPL Financial by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 75,835 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $20,036,000 after acquiring an additional 1,215 shares in the last quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda lifted its position in shares of LPL Financial by 41.6% during the 4th quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 524 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $119,000 after buying an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in shares of LPL Financial during the 4th quarter worth approximately $506,000. Family Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of LPL Financial during the 4th quarter worth approximately $16,050,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of LPL Financial by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,141,049 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,625,446,000 after buying an additional 48,439 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.66% of the company’s stock.

LPL Financial Company Profile

LPL Financial Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides an integrated platform of brokerage and investment advisory services to independent financial advisors and financial advisors at enterprises in the United States. Its brokerage offerings include variable and fixed annuities, mutual funds, equities, fixed income, alternative investments, retirement and 529 education savings plans, and insurance.