Wells Fargo & Company Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) Stock

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA - Free Report) had its price target boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $402.00 to $420.00 in a research note released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the financial services provider's stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Redburn Atlantic upgraded shares of LPL Financial from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $420.00 to $460.00 in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of LPL Financial from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, June 14th. TD Cowen downgraded shares of LPL Financial from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $406.00 to $403.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup downgraded shares of LPL Financial from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of LPL Financial from $330.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $369.08.

LPL Financial Stock Performance

Shares of LPL Financial stock traded down $8.21 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $371.97. The company's stock had a trading volume of 422,028 shares, compared to its average volume of 852,822. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $374.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $349.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a current ratio of 2.31. LPL Financial has a one year low of $187.19 and a one year high of $390.23. The stock has a market cap of $29.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 0.64.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $5.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.54 by $0.61. The firm had revenue of $3.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.63 billion. LPL Financial had a net margin of 8.23% and a return on equity of 46.34%. LPL Financial's quarterly revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.83 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that LPL Financial will post 19.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

LPL Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 30th were paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 30th. LPL Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 8.30%.

Insider Transactions at LPL Financial

In other LPL Financial news, Director Greg Gates sold 1,500 shares of LPL Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $382.63, for a total value of $573,945.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,620 shares in the company, valued at $7,889,830.60. The trade was a 6.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of LPL Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of LPL Financial by 2.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,372,857 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,411,956,000 after buying an additional 154,200 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of LPL Financial by 26.0% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,905,541 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,278,454,000 after buying an additional 805,637 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of LPL Financial by 20.6% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,050,529 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $996,032,000 after buying an additional 522,032 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of LPL Financial by 0.8% in the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 2,681,617 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $877,264,000 after buying an additional 20,881 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dodge & Cox lifted its stake in shares of LPL Financial by 224.1% in the first quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 1,523,460 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $498,385,000 after buying an additional 1,053,351 shares during the last quarter. 95.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About LPL Financial

LPL Financial Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides an integrated platform of brokerage and investment advisory services to independent financial advisors and financial advisors at enterprises in the United States. Its brokerage offerings include variable and fixed annuities, mutual funds, equities, fixed income, alternative investments, retirement and 529 education savings plans, and insurance.