Lakeland Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:LKFN) SVP Sells $20,100.00 in Stock

Lakeland Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:LKFN) SVP Kyra E. Clark sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total transaction of $20,100.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 9,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $644,138. The trade was a 3.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Lakeland Financial Trading Down 2.8%

Shares of LKFN stock opened at $61.60 on Friday. Lakeland Financial Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $50.00 and a fifty-two week high of $78.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $61.83. The company has a market cap of $1.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.78 and a beta of 0.60.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.11. Lakeland Financial had a net margin of 22.55% and a return on equity of 13.57%. The company had revenue of $63.36 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $67.02 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.87 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Lakeland Financial Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Lakeland Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 25th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 25th. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 54.50%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lakeland Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in Lakeland Financial during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Lakeland Financial during the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. CWM LLC raised its position 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 during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 656 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Lakeland Financial by 60.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,085 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 408 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Hovde Group upgraded shares of Lakeland Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $68.00 price target (up from $65.00) on shares of Lakeland Financial in a report on Monday, July 28th.

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.