Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.05 EPS

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 13.64% and a net margin of 22.85%.

Lakeland Financial Stock Up 2.8 %

NASDAQ:LKFN opened at $69.22 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.98 and a beta of 0.69. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $70.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.65. Lakeland Financial has a fifty-two week low of $57.45 and a fifty-two week high of $78.61.

Lakeland Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 5th. Investors of record on Saturday, January 25th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. This is a boost from Lakeland Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.89%. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 3,959 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.50, for a total transaction of $290,986.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 32,475 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,386,912.50. The trade was a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold 4,150 shares of company stock worth $305,327 over the last three months. 3.30% of the stock is owned by 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.