Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Reaffirms Market Perform Rating for Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN)

Key Points

• Keefe, Bruyette & Woods has reiterated its "market perform" rating for Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) and raised its price target from $65.00 to $68.00, indicating a slight potential downside from the stock's previous close.
• In contrast, Hovde Group upgraded Lakeland Financial to an "outperform" rating with a higher price target of $72.00.
• The company reported $1.04 earnings per share for its latest quarter, exceeding expectations, despite revenue falling short of the consensus estimate.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated their market perform rating on shares of Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN - Free Report) in a report published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a $68.00 price target on the financial services provider's stock, up from their prior price target of $65.00.

Separately, Hovde Group upgraded Lakeland Financial from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $72.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 6th.

Lakeland Financial Price Performance

Shares of Lakeland Financial stock traded down $1.55 during trading on Monday, hitting $63.86. The stock had a trading volume of 95,146 shares, compared to its average volume of 173,988. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market cap of $1.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.40 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a fifty day moving average of $62.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.90. Lakeland Financial has a fifty-two week low of $50.00 and a fifty-two week high of $78.61.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $63.36 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $67.02 million. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 13.57% and a net margin of 22.55%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.87 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Lakeland Financial will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lakeland Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 5th. Investors of record on Friday, July 25th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 25th. Lakeland Financial's payout ratio is presently 54.50%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Lisa M. O'neill sold 2,500 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.72, for a total value of $166,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 34,366 shares in the company, valued at $2,292,899.52. The trade was a 6.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Melinda Jo Truex bought 8,309 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $60.11 per share, for a total transaction of $499,453.99. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 16,507 shares in the company, valued at approximately $992,235.77. The trade was a 101.35% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LKFN. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial in the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 40.5% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 631 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 809.9% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 737 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 656 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 60.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,085 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 408 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.15% of the company's stock.

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.