Eric H. Ottinger Sells 3,959 Shares of Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) Stock

Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 3,959 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.50, for a total transaction of $290,986.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 32,475 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,386,912.50. This trade represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Lakeland Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LKFN opened at $72.67 on Wednesday. Lakeland Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $53.97 and a fifty-two week high of $78.31. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $66.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.39. The firm has a market cap of $1.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.88 and a beta of 0.65.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.03. Lakeland Financial had a net margin of 22.85% and a return on equity of 13.64%. The firm had revenue of $106.94 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $59.90 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Lakeland Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 5th. Investors of record on Friday, October 25th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 25th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.64%. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Lakeland Financial from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 12,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $787,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 58.0% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 640 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 5,679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $349,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 7,269 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $447,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 60.0% during the 3rd quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. 81.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.