Northern Trust Corp Increases Stock Position in Lakeland Financial Corporation $LKFN

Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:LKFN) by 2.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 476,997 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,728 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned about 1.87% of Lakeland Financial worth $28,353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LKFN. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Lakeland Financial during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 40.5% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 631 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,085 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 408 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 16.4% during the 1st quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,990 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $118,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial in the 1st quarter worth approximately $229,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lakeland Financial news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 4,635 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.07, for a total transaction of $310,869.45. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 32,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,165,153.74. This trade represents a 12.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Lisa M. O’neill sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.72, for a total transaction of $166,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 34,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,292,899.52. This trade represents a 6.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 7,435 shares of company stock valued at $497,769. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Lakeland Financial Price Performance

Shares of LKFN opened at $68.45 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 50 day simple moving average of $64.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $61.20. The firm has a market cap of $1.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.65 and a beta of 0.63.

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

Lakeland Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 25th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 25th. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.50%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $68.00 price objective (up previously from $65.00) on shares of Lakeland Financial in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Hovde Group upgraded shares of Lakeland Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.00.

Lakeland Financial 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.