Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) Announces $0.48 Quarterly Dividend

Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 8th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Friday, October 25th will be paid a dividend of 0.48 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, November 5th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 25th.

Lakeland Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 15.3% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Lakeland Financial has a payout ratio of 54.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Lakeland Financial to earn $3.46 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.5%.

Lakeland Financial Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LKFN opened at $65.40 on Thursday. Lakeland Financial has a 1 year low of $46.26 and a 1 year high of $73.22. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.18. The firm has a market cap of $1.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.07 and a beta of 0.65.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.85 by $0.02. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 14.72% and a net margin of 23.70%. The business had revenue of $68.74 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $60.70 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.57 earnings per share. Lakeland Financial’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Lakeland Financial will post 3.37 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP James Rickard Donovan sold 800 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.42, for a total transaction of $52,336.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,568 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $625,938.56. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Lakeland Financial news, SVP Kyra E. Clark sold 420 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.93, for a total transaction of $28,950.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $494,641.68. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP James Rickard Donovan sold 800 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.42, for a total value of $52,336.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,568 shares in the company, valued at $625,938.56. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,635 shares of company stock valued at $914,604 over the last three months. 3.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lakeland Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.00.

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.