Key Points
- LPL CFO Matthew Audette sold 1,110 shares on April 15 for $330.01 each, totaling $366,311.10 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, reducing his stake by 5.31% to 19,803 shares.
- LPL posted a strong Q4, beating estimates with EPS of $5.23 (vs. $4.82 expected) and revenue of $4.93B (up 8.4% YoY), and reported a 34.19% return on equity.
- The stock is trading down roughly 5.7% around $312.57, while analysts have mixed targets (consensus "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $401.93) and institutional investors own about 95.7% of shares.
LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA - Get Free Report) CFO Matthew Audette sold 469 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.34, for a total transaction of $152,584.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 20,913 shares in the company, valued at $6,803,835.42. The trade was a 2.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.
LPL Financial Stock Down 5.7%
LPLA opened at $312.57 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.45, a quick ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $281.51 and a 1-year high of $403.58. The company has a market capitalization of $25.06 billion, a PE ratio of 28.39, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.56. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $312.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $342.15.
LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $5.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.41. LPL Financial had a net margin of 5.08% and a return on equity of 34.19%. The business had revenue of $4.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.90 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.25 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that LPL Financial Holdings Inc. will post 19.35 EPS for the current year.
LPL Financial Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th were given a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. LPL Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.90%.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On LPL Financial
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Stratos Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of LPL Financial by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC now owns 715 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $238,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Goldstein Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of LPL Financial by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Goldstein Advisors LLC now owns 634 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $226,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of LPL Financial by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 785 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $280,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of LPL Financial by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC now owns 5,475 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,956,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PUREfi Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of LPL Financial by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. PUREfi Wealth LLC now owns 732 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $244,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. 95.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
LPLA has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of LPL Financial from $447.00 to $374.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of LPL Financial from $433.00 to $439.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of LPL Financial from $464.00 to $383.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 6th. TD Cowen restated a "hold" rating on shares of LPL Financial in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of LPL Financial in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $401.93.
Check Out Our Latest Report on LPLA
LPL Financial Company Profile
(
Get Free Report)
LPL Financial (NASDAQ: LPLA) is a U.S.-focused financial services firm that provides brokerage, custodial and advisory platforms to independent financial advisors, registered investment advisers and institutions. Operating primarily as an independent broker-dealer and custodian, the company supports a network of advisors with the operational, compliance and clearing infrastructure needed to manage client accounts and deliver investment advice outside of traditional wirehouse models.
The firm's product and service offerings include trade execution and clearing, custody services, retirement plan services, model portfolio and advisory platforms, wealth management technology, investment research and product access across equities, fixed income, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and insurance and annuity solutions.
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