Arizona State Retirement System Purchases 280 Shares of Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN)

Arizona State Retirement System grew its position in Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) by 4.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,269 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 280 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Lakeland Financial were worth $447,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial by 24.8% in the second quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 65,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,013,000 after acquiring an additional 12,975 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial by 10.8% in the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 5,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $334,000 after acquiring an additional 529 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial by 0.3% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 232,888 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,327,000 after acquiring an additional 684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Merchants Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Lakeland Financial in the second quarter valued at approximately $215,000. Institutional investors own 81.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lakeland Financial news, SVP James Rickard Donovan sold 800 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.42, for a total transaction of $52,336.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9,568 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $625,938.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Kyra E. Clark sold 420 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.93, for a total value of $28,950.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $494,641.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP James Rickard Donovan sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.42, for a total transaction of $52,336.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,568 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $625,938.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 13,635 shares of company stock valued at $914,604. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Lakeland Financial from $64.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.00.

Lakeland Financial Price Performance

Shares of Lakeland Financial stock opened at $66.45 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.36 and a beta of 0.66. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.01. Lakeland Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $44.47 and a fifty-two week high of $73.22.

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

Lakeland Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 25th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 25th. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.04%.

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.