ProShare Advisors LLC Buys 99,791 Shares of Lakeland Financial Corporation $LKFN

ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in Lakeland Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:LKFN) by 1,699.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 105,663 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 99,791 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in Lakeland Financial were worth $6,493,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial in the first quarter valued at about $229,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 181,034 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,761,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 15,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $927,000 after purchasing an additional 1,240 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 40.5% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 631 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial by 25.0% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 10,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $624,000 after buying an additional 2,100 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LKFN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Lakeland Financial in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $68.00 price objective (down from $74.00) on shares of Lakeland Financial in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Lakeland Financial from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.67.

Lakeland Financial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LKFN opened at $58.25 on Friday. Lakeland Financial Corporation has a 1 year low of $50.00 and a 1 year high of $78.61. The company has a market capitalization of $1.49 billion, a PE ratio of 15.37 and a beta of 0.67. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $62.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $62.21.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.01. Lakeland Financial had a net margin of 23.23% and a return on equity of 13.77%. The company had revenue of $69.03 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $69.15 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Lakeland Financial Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Lakeland Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 5th. Investors of record on Saturday, October 25th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 24th. Lakeland Financial’s payout ratio is 52.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 4,635 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.07, for a total value of $310,869.45. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 32,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,165,153.74. This represents a 12.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 3.00% 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.