Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) Earns Outperform Rating from Raymond James Financial

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by equities research analysts at Raymond James Financial in a report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $68.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock, down from their previous target price of $74.00. Raymond James Financial’s price target suggests a potential upside of 19.74% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on LKFN. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Lakeland Financial from $68.00 to $66.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Lakeland Financial in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.67.

Lakeland Financial Stock Performance

LKFN stock opened at $56.79 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.91. Lakeland Financial has a fifty-two week low of $50.00 and a fifty-two week high of $78.61. The company has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.98 and a beta of 0.59.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.01. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 13.77% and a net margin of 23.23%.The business had revenue of $69.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $69.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.91 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Lakeland Financial will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 4,635 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.07, for a total value of $310,869.45. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 32,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,165,153.74. This represents a 12.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lakeland Financial

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 40.5% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 631 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank grew its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 3.4% in the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 7,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $483,000 after acquiring an additional 245 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming grew its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 5.8% in the first quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 4,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $269,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 2.2% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 12,925 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $768,000 after acquiring an additional 280 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harbour Investments Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 16.4% in the first quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,990 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $118,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares in the last quarter. 81.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.