Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) Shares Sold by DAVENPORT & Co LLC

DAVENPORT & Co LLC decreased its position in Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) by 36.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,831 shares during the quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC’s holdings in Lakeland Financial were worth $469,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of LKFN. Sippican Capital Advisors lifted its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Sippican Capital Advisors now owns 19,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,332,000 after acquiring an additional 445 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Lakeland Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 62.3% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,672 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $115,000 after acquiring an additional 642 shares in the last quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. now owns 22,638 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,557,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Lakeland Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $10,560,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective (up from $73.00) on shares of Lakeland Financial in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

Lakeland Financial Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LKFN opened at $68.18 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $69.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $67.87. Lakeland Financial Co. has a 52-week low of $57.45 and a 52-week high of $78.61. The company has a market capitalization of $1.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.78 and a beta of 0.68.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.05. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 13.31% and a net margin of 21.74%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Lakeland Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 5th. Investors of record on Saturday, January 25th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. This is an increase from Lakeland Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.93%. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 55.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 3,959 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.50, for a total value of $290,986.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 32,475 shares in the company, valued at $2,386,912.50. This trade represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Lakeland Financial Company 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.