Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) Upgraded to “Outperform” at Hovde Group

Hovde Group upgraded shares of Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $72.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Lakeland Financial from $69.00 to $65.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th.

Lakeland Financial Stock Performance

Shares of LKFN opened at $59.93 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $57.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $65.39. The stock has a market cap of $1.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.51 and a beta of 0.58. Lakeland Financial has a one year low of $50.00 and a one year high of $78.61.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.09). Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 13.31% and a net margin of 21.74%. The firm had revenue of $90.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.54 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. Analysts predict that Lakeland Financial will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lakeland Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 25th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 25th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.34%. Lakeland Financial’s payout ratio is 57.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lakeland Financial news, EVP Stephanie R. Leniski sold 1,500 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,211 shares of the company’s stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director M Scott Welch purchased 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $61.40 per share, with a total value of $307,000.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 39,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,394,600. This represents a 14.71 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Lakeland Financial in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial by 40.5% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 631 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial during the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 656 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in Lakeland Financial in the 4th quarter worth about $53,000. Hedge funds and other 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.