Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) Shares Bought by Snowden Capital Advisors LLC

Snowden Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) by 10.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 8,610 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 796 shares during the quarter. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Lakeland Financial were worth $592,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Lakeland Financial by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,940,356 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $133,419,000 after acquiring an additional 100,001 shares during the period. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 956,565 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $65,773,000 after buying an additional 51,624 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 946,280 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $65,066,000 after buying an additional 43,312 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 807,525 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $55,526,000 after buying an additional 6,307 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Copeland Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 764,186 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,545,000 after buying an additional 18,247 shares during the last quarter. 81.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on LKFN. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on Lakeland Financial from $69.00 to $65.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Hovde Group raised Lakeland Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $72.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lakeland Financial news, SVP Donald Robinson-Gay sold 550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.25, for a total value of $36,437.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,974 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $329,527.50. This represents a 9.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director M Scott Welch purchased 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $61.40 per share, for a total transaction of $307,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 39,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,394,600. This represents a 14.71% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Lakeland Financial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LKFN opened at $61.32 on Wednesday. Lakeland Financial Co. has a 12 month low of $50.00 and a 12 month high of $78.61. The stock has a market cap of $1.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.89 and a beta of 0.58. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $57.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.15.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.09). Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 13.31% and a net margin of 21.74%. The firm had revenue of $90.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $63.54 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Lakeland Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Friday, April 25th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 25th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.26%. Lakeland Financial’s payout ratio is 57.14%.

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.