Short Interest in Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) Expands By 6.9%

Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,180,000 shares, a growth of 6.9% from the October 15th total of 2,040,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 114,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 19.0 days. Approximately 8.9% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Activity at Lakeland Financial

In related news, Director M Scott Welch acquired 3,920 shares of Lakeland Financial stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $50.98 per share, with a total value of $199,841.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 183,326 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,345,959.48. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 3.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lakeland Financial

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LKFN. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 78.9% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 381 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Tower View Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 49.9% during the 2nd quarter. Tower View Wealth Management LLC now owns 613 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio boosted its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 47.6% during the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Lakeland Financial by 45.3% during the 2nd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 542 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Lakeland Financial during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. 80.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on LKFN shares. Raymond James dropped their price target on Lakeland Financial from $64.00 to $60.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 26th. TheStreet downgraded Lakeland Financial from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Lakeland Financial to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 26th.

Lakeland Financial Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ LKFN opened at $57.18 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.08 and a beta of 0.71. Lakeland Financial has a 12 month low of $43.05 and a 12 month high of $79.57. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $49.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $50.85.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $59.23 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.80 million. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 15.54% and a net margin of 24.30%. As a group, analysts forecast that Lakeland Financial will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lakeland Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 6th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 25th were issued a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 24th. Lakeland Financial’s payout ratio is presently 52.57%.

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.