LPL Financial LLC Raises Position in Gladstone Land Co. (NASDAQ:LAND)

LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in Gladstone Land Co. (NASDAQ:LAND) by 119.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 76,469 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 41,638 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned 0.21% of Gladstone Land worth $830,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Gladstone Land by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 900,632 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,521,000 after acquiring an additional 13,217 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Gladstone Land by 2.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 795,775 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $11,061,000 after purchasing an additional 16,079 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Gladstone Land by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 201,093 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,182,000 after buying an additional 26,565 shares in the last quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc grew its position in Gladstone Land by 66.3% during the fourth quarter. Accordant Advisory Group Inc now owns 179,355 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,946,000 after buying an additional 71,507 shares during the period. Finally, Southern Style Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Gladstone Land in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,893,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com cut Gladstone Land from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Gladstone Land news, Director Anthony W. Parker sold 6,601 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.02, for a total transaction of $72,743.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 7.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Gladstone Land Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ LAND opened at $9.74 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $10.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.36. Gladstone Land Co. has a 12-month low of $8.66 and a 12-month high of $15.36. The company has a market capitalization of $352.44 million, a PE ratio of -33.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 1.15.

Gladstone Land (NASDAQ:LAND) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by $0.19. Gladstone Land had a return on equity of 1.89% and a net margin of 15.59%. The company had revenue of $21.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.45 million. Equities analysts anticipate that Gladstone Land Co. will post 0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gladstone Land Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 22nd will be issued a $0.0467 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 21st. This represents a yield of 5.75%. Gladstone Land’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -193.10%.

About Gladstone Land

Founded in 1997, Gladstone Land is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that acquires and owns farmland and farm-related properties located in major agricultural markets in the U.S. and leases its properties to unrelated third-party farmers. The Company, which reports the aggregate fair value of its farmland holdings on a quarterly basis, currently owns 169 farms, comprised of approximately 116,000 acres in 15 different states and over 45,000 acre-feet of banked water in California, valued at a total of approximately $1.6 billion.