Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) Issues Earnings Results

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday. The financial services provider reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.05, Zacks reports. Lakeland Financial had a net margin of 22.85% and a return on equity of 13.64%.

Lakeland Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ LKFN opened at $65.97 on Friday. Lakeland Financial has a 52-week low of $57.45 and a 52-week high of $78.61. The stock has a market cap of $1.68 billion, a PE ratio of 17.06 and a beta of 0.69. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $70.94 and a 200-day moving average of $67.58.

Lakeland Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 5th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, January 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This is a boost from Lakeland Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.95%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lakeland Financial news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 3,959 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were 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 $2,386,912.50. This trade represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 4,150 shares of company stock valued at $305,327. 3.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.