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

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

Lakeland Financial has increased its dividend by an average of 12.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Lakeland Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 50.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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

Shares of Lakeland Financial stock traded down $0.34 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $68.59. 126,779 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 121,615. Lakeland Financial has a 12 month low of $57.45 and a 12 month high of $78.61. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $71.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $67.30. 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 - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $106.94 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $59.90 million. Lakeland Financial had a return on equity of 13.64% and a net margin of 22.85%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Lakeland Financial will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Lakeland Financial

In other Lakeland Financial 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 32,475 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,386,912.50. This represents a 10.87 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 4,150 shares of company stock worth $305,327. 3.30% of the stock is owned by company 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.