Eric H. Ottinger Sells 3,959 Shares of Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) Stock

Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 3,959 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.50, for a total transaction of $290,986.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 32,475 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,386,912.50. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Lakeland Financial Stock Performance

Shares of LKFN opened at $72.11 on Thursday. Lakeland Financial Co. has a 52-week low of $53.97 and a 52-week high of $78.31. The firm has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.73 and a beta of 0.65. The business’s fifty day moving average is $66.77 and its 200-day moving average is $64.47.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $106.94 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $59.90 million. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 13.64% and a net margin of 22.85%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lakeland Financial Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of Lakeland Financial

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial during the second quarter worth $31,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in Lakeland Financial by 342.5% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 593 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 459 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Lakeland Financial by 58.0% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 640 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in Lakeland Financial in the 3rd quarter worth about $74,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its position in Lakeland Financial by 72.2% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,123 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $138,000 after purchasing an additional 890 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

About Lakeland Financial

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.