Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Grows Position in Lincoln National Co. (NYSE:LNC)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC raised its stake in Lincoln National Co. (NYSE:LNC) by 16.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,385 shares during the quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in Lincoln National were worth $538,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Lincoln National by 7.2% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,309,453 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $104,281,000 after acquiring an additional 223,129 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln National by 19.5% during the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 64,658 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,050,000 after purchasing an additional 10,560 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln National by 20,127.5% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 316,965 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,051,000 after purchasing an additional 315,398 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Lincoln National in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,050,000. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in Lincoln National by 92.0% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 119,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,747,000 after buying an additional 57,152 shares in the last quarter. 72.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LNC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Lincoln National from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Lincoln National from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on Lincoln National from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Barclays raised their target price on Lincoln National from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Lincoln National from $32.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.45.

Lincoln National Trading Down 3.5 %

LNC opened at $28.83 on Wednesday. Lincoln National Co. has a 12-month low of $25.80 and a 12-month high of $39.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.91 billion, a PE ratio of 1.57, a P/E/G ratio of 0.30 and a beta of 1.56. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $36.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $34.10.

Lincoln National (NYSE:LNC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.04. Lincoln National had a net margin of 17.76% and a return on equity of 18.47%. As a group, research analysts expect that Lincoln National Co. will post 7.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln National Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.24%. Lincoln National’s payout ratio is 9.79%.

Lincoln National Profile

Lincoln National Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates multiple insurance and retirement businesses in the United States. It operates in four segments: Life Insurance, Annuities, Group Protection, and Retirement Plan Services. The Life Insurance segment provides life insurance products, including term insurance, universal life insurance (UL), indexed universal life insurance, variable universal life insurance (VUL), linked-benefit UL and VUL products, and critical illness and long-term care riders.