Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.48

Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 9th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Thursday, April 25th will be given a dividend of 0.48 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, May 6th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 24th.

Lakeland Financial has raised its dividend payment by an average of 15.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Lakeland Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 54.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Lakeland Financial to earn $3.50 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 54.9%.

Lakeland Financial Price Performance

LKFN opened at $61.37 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Lakeland Financial has a 12 month low of $43.05 and a 12 month high of $73.22. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $63.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $60.42. The stock has a market cap of $1.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.81 and a beta of 0.67.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $65.81 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $59.81 million. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 14.89% and a net margin of 23.85%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.01 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Lakeland Financial will post 3.49 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LKFN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Stephens increased their target price on Lakeland Financial from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Raymond James increased their target price on Lakeland Financial from $60.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th.

Insider Transactions at Lakeland Financial

In other news, SVP Stephanie R. Leniski sold 2,560 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.17, for a total transaction of $161,715.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,270 shares in the company, valued at approximately $269,735.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, SVP Stephanie R. Leniski sold 2,560 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.17, for a total transaction of $161,715.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,270 shares in the company, valued at approximately $269,735.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO David M. Findlay sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.26, for a total transaction of $783,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 14,175 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $925,060.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 53,728 shares of company stock worth $3,670,449 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

About Lakeland Financial

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.