New York State Teachers Retirement System Sells 400 Shares of Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Oct 27th, 2023

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its position in shares of Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN – Free Report) by 5.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,040 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Lakeland Financial were worth $342,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 3.5% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,807,592 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $277,953,000 after acquiring an additional 128,992 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 2.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,838,241 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $133,843,000 after acquiring an additional 35,326 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 27.4% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,308,005 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $95,484,000 after acquiring an additional 280,943 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 942,136 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $68,748,000 after purchasing an additional 5,666 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial by 1.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 772,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,405,000 after purchasing an additional 10,045 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.70% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lakeland Financial

In other news, SVP Jonathan P. Steiner purchased 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 17th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $55.26 per share, for a total transaction of $165,780.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,369 shares in the company, valued at approximately $517,730.94. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director M Scott Welch purchased 3,920 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $50.98 per share, for a total transaction of $199,841.60. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 183,326 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,345,959.48. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Jonathan P. Steiner purchased 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $55.26 per share, for a total transaction of $165,780.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now owns 9,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $517,730.94. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders acquired 7,820 shares of company stock valued at $415,266. Company insiders own 3.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on LKFN shares. StockNews.com raised Lakeland Financial to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Raymond James decreased their price objective on Lakeland Financial from $64.00 to $60.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, TheStreet cut Lakeland Financial from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, July 24th.

Get Our Latest Report on Lakeland Financial

Lakeland Financial Stock Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ:LKFN opened at $49.58 on Friday. Lakeland Financial Co. has a 1 year low of $43.05 and a 1 year high of $83.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.66 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $49.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $51.29.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.06. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 16.37% and a net margin of 27.14%. The firm had revenue of $59.23 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.80 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Lakeland Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 25th will be paid a $0.46 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 24th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. Lakeland Financial’s payout ratio is 50.69%.

About Lakeland Financial

(Free Report)

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.