Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Increases Position in Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial Co. (NASDAQ:LKFN) by 18.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 18,461 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,910 shares during the quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Lakeland Financial were worth $1,269,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LKFN. Albert D Mason Inc. increased its position in shares of Lakeland Financial by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. now owns 22,638 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,557,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Lakeland Financial by 58.0% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 640 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC raised its stake in Lakeland Financial by 60.0% in the third quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Lakeland Financial by 3.2% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 12,896 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $793,000 after acquiring an additional 397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sippican Capital Advisors grew its stake in shares of Lakeland Financial by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Sippican Capital Advisors now owns 19,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,332,000 after acquiring an additional 445 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective (up from $73.00) on shares of Lakeland Financial in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

Lakeland Financial Trading Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ:LKFN opened at $69.34 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.80. Lakeland Financial Co. has a 12 month low of $57.45 and a 12 month high of $78.61. The company has a market capitalization of $1.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.10 and a beta of 0.68.

Lakeland Financial (NASDAQ:LKFN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.05. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 13.31% and a net margin of 21.74%. Equities analysts forecast that Lakeland Financial Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Lakeland Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 5th. Investors of record on Saturday, January 25th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.88%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 24th. This is an increase from Lakeland Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. Lakeland Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 55.10%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Eric H. Ottinger sold 3,959 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.50, for a total value of $290,986.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 32,475 shares in the company, valued at $2,386,912.50. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 3.30% of the stock is currently 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.