Bank of New York Mellon Corp Trims Holdings in Lakeland Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:LKFN)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:LKFN - Free Report) by 3.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 202,754 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 7,679 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.78% of Lakeland Financial worth $12,052,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Lakeland Financial during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Lakeland Financial by 809.9% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 737 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 656 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Lakeland Financial by 60.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,085 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 408 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Lakeland Financial in the 4th quarter worth $214,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in Lakeland Financial in the 1st quarter worth $229,000. 81.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Melinda Jo Truex bought 8,309 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $60.11 per share, with a total value of $499,453.99. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 16,507 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $992,235.77. This trade represents a 101.35% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on LKFN. Hovde Group raised shares of Lakeland Financial from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Lakeland Financial from $69.00 to $65.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th.

Lakeland Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Lakeland Financial stock traded down $0.28 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $64.97. 186,943 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 143,847. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.92. Lakeland Financial Corporation has a 52-week low of $50.00 and a 52-week high of $78.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.56 and a beta of 0.60.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 net margin of 21.08% and a return on equity of 12.71%. The firm had revenue of $90.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.54 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.91 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Lakeland Financial Corporation will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Lakeland Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 5th. Investors of record on Friday, July 25th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 25th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.08%. Lakeland Financial's payout ratio is presently 57.14%.

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.