Matthew Audette Sells 469 Shares of LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) Stock

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) CFO Matthew Audette sold 469 shares of LPL Financial stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.34, for a total transaction of $152,584.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 20,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,803,835.42. The trade was a 2.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

LPL Financial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LPLA opened at $317.41 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.45, a quick ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $311.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $341.98. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $281.51 and a 1-year high of $403.58. The stock has a market cap of $25.45 billion, a PE ratio of 28.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.56.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $5.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $4.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.90 billion. LPL Financial had a return on equity of 34.19% and a net margin of 5.08%.The business’s revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.25 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that LPL Financial Holdings Inc. will post 19.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

LPL Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th were issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. LPL Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.90%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on LPLA shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of LPL Financial in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Wolfe Research set a $478.00 target price on LPL Financial in a report on Friday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on LPL Financial from $433.00 to $439.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. UBS Group raised LPL Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $406.00 to $380.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on LPL Financial from $447.00 to $374.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, LPL Financial has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $401.93.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Stratos Investment Management LLC lifted its position in LPL Financial by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC now owns 715 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $238,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Goldstein Advisors LLC lifted its position in LPL Financial by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Goldstein Advisors LLC now owns 634 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $226,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC lifted its position in LPL Financial by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 785 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $280,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC lifted its position in LPL Financial by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC now owns 5,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,956,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PUREfi Wealth LLC lifted its position in LPL Financial by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. PUREfi Wealth LLC now owns 732 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $244,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.66% of the company’s stock.

About LPL Financial

LPL Financial (NASDAQ: LPLA) is a U.S.-focused financial services firm that provides brokerage, custodial and advisory platforms to independent financial advisors, registered investment advisers and institutions. Operating primarily as an independent broker-dealer and custodian, the company supports a network of advisors with the operational, compliance and clearing infrastructure needed to manage client accounts and deliver investment advice outside of traditional wirehouse models.

The firm’s product and service offerings include trade execution and clearing, custody services, retirement plan services, model portfolio and advisory platforms, wealth management technology, investment research and product access across equities, fixed income, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and insurance and annuity solutions.