LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $268.36.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on LPLA shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on LPL Financial from $254.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on LPL Financial from $266.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised LPL Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $254.00 to $315.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays lifted their price objective on LPL Financial from $302.00 to $312.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Raymond James initiated coverage on LPL Financial in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. They set an “underperform” rating for the company.

LPL Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LPLA opened at $263.00 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 1.77. The firm has a market cap of $19.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.84. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $261.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $240.18. LPL Financial has a 52 week low of $179.00 and a 52 week high of $274.35.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $3.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.33 by $0.18. LPL Financial had a return on equity of 57.68% and a net margin of 10.61%. The firm had revenue of $2.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.55 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $4.21 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that LPL Financial will post 15.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

LPL Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 12th were paid a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 11th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. LPL Financial’s payout ratio is 8.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at LPL Financial

In related news, Director Matthew Enyedi sold 1,381 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.94, for a total value of $354,834.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,634 shares in the company, valued at $2,218,419.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Matthew Enyedi sold 1,381 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.94, for a total transaction of $354,834.14. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,218,419.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Kabir Sethi sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $266.50, for a total transaction of $346,450.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,245 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,730,292.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 60,151 shares of company stock valued at $15,911,088 in the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of LPLA. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in LPL Financial by 218,199.4% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 95,191,655 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $20,577,580,000 after buying an additional 95,148,049 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in LPL Financial by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,141,049 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,625,446,000 after buying an additional 48,439 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in LPL Financial by 4.0% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,542,756 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,324,254,000 after buying an additional 250,448 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in LPL Financial by 7.5% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,574,135 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $652,923,000 after buying an additional 248,255 shares during the period. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its position in LPL Financial by 3.9% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 2,145,780 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $509,945,000 after buying an additional 79,869 shares during the period. 95.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About LPL Financial

LPL Financial Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides an integrated platform of brokerage and investment advisory services to independent financial advisors and financial advisors at enterprises in the United States. Its brokerage offerings include variable and fixed annuities, mutual funds, equities, fixed income, alternative investments, retirement and 529 education savings plans, and insurance.