Blair William & Co. IL Sells 686 Shares of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA)

Blair William & Co. IL lowered its stake in LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) by 2.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,601 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 686 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in LPL Financial were worth $6,871,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in LPL Financial by 38.8% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 41,850 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,057,000 after purchasing an additional 11,703 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of LPL Financial by 533.8% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 5,153 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,359,000 after buying an additional 4,340 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of LPL Financial in the 1st quarter valued at $3,648,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of LPL Financial by 23.4% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 113,254 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,923,000 after acquiring an additional 21,481 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its position in LPL Financial by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 394,091 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $110,070,000 after acquiring an additional 20,123 shares during the last quarter. 95.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LPLA. StockNews.com raised LPL Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of LPL Financial in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $235.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of LPL Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $268.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of LPL Financial from $290.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on LPL Financial from $326.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $275.27.

LPL Financial Stock Performance

LPLA stock opened at $215.52 on Friday. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $187.19 and a 1-year high of $289.88. The company has a current ratio of 2.16, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $216.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $251.88. The firm has a market cap of $16.10 billion, a PE ratio of 16.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.88.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.66 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.89 billion. LPL Financial had a return on equity of 52.14% and a net margin of 8.91%. The company’s revenue was up 18.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.94 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that LPL Financial Holdings Inc. will post 15.9 earnings per share for the current year.

LPL Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. LPL Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.06%.

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.