Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) Raises Dividend to $0.50 Per Share

Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 15th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Saturday, January 25th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, February 5th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.92%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. This is an increase from Lakeland Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48.

Lakeland Financial has raised its dividend by an average of 12.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Lakeland Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 50.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Lakeland Financial to earn $3.55 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 54.1%.

Lakeland Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ LKFN opened at $68.59 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $71.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $67.31. Lakeland Financial has a one year low of $57.45 and a one year high of $78.61. The company has a market capitalization of $1.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.82 and a beta of 0.69.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.03. Lakeland Financial had a net margin of 22.85% and a return on equity of 13.64%. The business had revenue of $106.94 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $59.90 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Lakeland Financial will post 3.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Lakeland Financial

In related news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 3,959 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.50, for a total transaction of $290,986.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 32,475 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,386,912.50. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders sold 4,150 shares of company stock valued at $305,327. Insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

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.