Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $828,000 in Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 12,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $828,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Lakeland Financial by 10,016.7% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,214 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 1,202 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp bought a new stake in Lakeland Financial in the third quarter valued at about $203,000. Revisor Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Lakeland Financial in the third quarter valued at about $212,000. Personal CFO Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Lakeland Financial in the third quarter valued at about $215,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in Lakeland Financial by 33.6% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 4,902 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $233,000 after acquiring an additional 1,234 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.15% of the company’s stock.

Lakeland Financial Price Performance

Shares of LKFN stock opened at $59.77 on Friday. Lakeland Financial Co. has a 1 year low of $43.05 and a 1 year high of $73.22. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $62.84 and its 200-day moving average is $60.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.38 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.10. Lakeland Financial had a net margin of 23.85% and a return on equity of 14.89%. The company had revenue of $65.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $59.81 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lakeland Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 25th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 24th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.21%. Lakeland Financial’s payout ratio is 52.60%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on LKFN. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Lakeland Financial from $60.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Stephens upped their price objective on shares of Lakeland Financial from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th.

Insider Transactions at Lakeland Financial

In other news, SVP Stephanie R. Leniski sold 2,560 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.17, for a total transaction of $161,715.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,270 shares in the company, valued at $269,735.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Stephanie R. Leniski sold 2,560 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.17, for a total value of $161,715.20. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,270 shares in the company, valued at $269,735.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Steven D. Ross sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $83,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 27,501 shares in the company, valued at $1,773,814.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 53,728 shares of company stock worth $3,670,449. Corporate insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

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.