Forvis Mazars Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Position in Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN)

Forvis Mazars Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 68,875 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 255 shares during the quarter. Forvis Mazars Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Lakeland Financial were worth $4,736,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in Lakeland Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $10,560,000. Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Lakeland Financial by 29.5% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 250,139 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,289,000 after buying an additional 56,928 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Lakeland Financial by 130.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 50,960 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,320,000 after buying an additional 28,851 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Lakeland Financial by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,276,929 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $83,154,000 after buying an additional 27,556 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Lakeland Financial by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 902,968 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $58,801,000 after buying an additional 27,214 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and set a $74.00 price target (up from $73.00) on shares of Lakeland Financial in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

Lakeland Financial Stock Performance

Lakeland Financial stock opened at $65.59 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.07 and a beta of 0.68. Lakeland Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $57.45 and a fifty-two week high of $78.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $68.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.85.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.05. Lakeland Financial had a net margin of 21.74% and a return on equity of 13.31%. Sell-side analysts predict that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Lakeland Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 5th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, January 25th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 24th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.05%. This is a boost from Lakeland Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.10%.

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.