Albert D Mason Inc. Purchases 177 Shares of Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN)

Albert D Mason Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,638 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 177 shares during the quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. owned approximately 0.09% of Lakeland Financial worth $1,557,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of LKFN. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Lakeland Financial during the fourth quarter valued at about $10,560,000. Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Lakeland Financial by 29.5% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 250,139 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,289,000 after buying an additional 56,928 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in Lakeland Financial by 686.8% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 57,051 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,510,000 after buying an additional 49,800 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its position in Lakeland Financial by 130.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 50,960 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,320,000 after acquiring an additional 28,851 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in Lakeland Financial by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,276,929 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $83,154,000 after acquiring an additional 27,556 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 3,959 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $2,386,912.50. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 4,150 shares of company stock worth $305,327. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Lakeland Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LKFN opened at $68.39 on Friday. Lakeland Financial Co. has a 52 week low of $57.45 and a 52 week high of $78.61. The firm has a market cap of $1.74 billion, a PE ratio of 17.76 and a beta of 0.69. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $71.37 and its 200-day moving average is $67.37.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $106.94 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $59.90 million. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 13.64% and a net margin of 22.85%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

Lakeland Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 5th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, January 25th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 24th. This is an increase from Lakeland Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.87%.

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.