Shay Capital LLC Takes $951,000 Position in Lincoln National Co. (NYSE:LNC)

Shay Capital LLC bought a new position in Lincoln National Co. (NYSE:LNC) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 30,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $951,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Lincoln National by 89.1% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 95,677 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,149,000 after acquiring an additional 45,086 shares during the last quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln National by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 286,286 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,078,000 after purchasing an additional 11,216 shares during the period. BluePath Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Lincoln National by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC now owns 25,238 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $776,000 after purchasing an additional 4,205 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Lincoln National during the 4th quarter valued at about $54,189,000. Finally, Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC increased its holdings in Lincoln National by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 29,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $933,000 after purchasing an additional 602 shares during the period. 72.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on LNC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on Lincoln National from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Lincoln National from $42.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Lincoln National from $32.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Lincoln National from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Lincoln National from $36.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.27.

Lincoln National Stock Performance

Shares of LNC opened at $34.17 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market cap of $5.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 1.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.30 and a beta of 1.42. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $33.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $34.08. Lincoln National Co. has a 52 week low of $27.58 and a 52 week high of $39.85.

Lincoln National (NYSE:LNC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.06. Lincoln National had a return on equity of 18.47% and a net margin of 17.76%. The business had revenue of $4.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.41 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Lincoln National Co. will post 7.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln National Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Lincoln National’s payout ratio is 25.57%.

About Lincoln National

Lincoln National Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates multiple insurance and retirement businesses in the United States. It operates in four segments: Life Insurance, Annuities, Group Protection, and Retirement Plan Services. The Life Insurance segment provides life insurance products, including term insurance, universal life insurance (UL), indexed universal life insurance, variable universal life insurance (VUL), linked-benefit UL and VUL products, and critical illness and long-term care riders.