Prospera Private Wealth LLC Acquires New Position in Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN)

Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 5,402 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $352,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LKFN. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 1.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 816,549 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $50,232,000 after purchasing an additional 11,118 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 5.8% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 233,836 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,386,000 after purchasing an additional 12,846 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 0.3% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 232,888 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,327,000 after purchasing an additional 684 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 132.5% during the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 98,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,042,000 after purchasing an additional 55,975 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 15.6% during the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 75,418 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,911,000 after purchasing an additional 10,194 shares during the last quarter. 81.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 3,959 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.50, for a total transaction of $290,986.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 32,475 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,386,912.50. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP James Rickard Donovan sold 800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.42, for a total value of $52,336.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,568 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $625,938.56. This represents a 7.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,950 shares of company stock worth $1,162,383. Insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Lakeland Financial Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ LKFN opened at $72.11 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $66.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.47. The company has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a PE ratio of 18.73 and a beta of 0.65. Lakeland Financial Co. has a 12-month low of $53.97 and a 12-month high of $78.31.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $106.94 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $59.90 million. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 13.64% and a net margin of 22.85%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lakeland Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 25th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 25th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.87%.

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.