Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.50 Per Share

Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Saturday, January 25th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, February 5th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. This is a positive change from Lakeland Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Lakeland Financial has increased its dividend by an average of 12.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Lakeland Financial has a payout ratio of 53.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Lakeland Financial to earn $3.61 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.4%.

Lakeland Financial Price Performance

Lakeland Financial stock opened at $68.13 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $71.23 and its 200 day moving average is $67.51. Lakeland Financial has a one year low of $57.45 and a one year high of $78.61. The firm has a market cap of $1.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.70 and a beta of 0.69.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. Lakeland Financial had a net margin of 22.85% and a return on equity of 13.64%. The firm had revenue of $106.94 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $59.90 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Lakeland Financial will post 3.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lakeland Financial news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 3,959 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.50, for a total value of $290,986.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 32,475 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,386,912.50. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,150 shares of company stock worth $305,327. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

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.