Greg Gates Sells 4,119 Shares of LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) Stock

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) Director Greg Gates sold 4,119 shares of LPL Financial stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $355.38, for a total value of $1,463,810.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 23,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,387,678.76. This represents a 14.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

LPL Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LPLA opened at $361.35 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $28.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.82, a PEG ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.48. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $260.15 and a fifty-two week high of $400.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 2.39 and a current ratio of 2.39. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $326.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $315.86.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $5.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.39 by $0.45. The company had revenue of $5.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.04 billion. LPL Financial had a return on equity of 32.20% and a net margin of 5.13%.LPL Financial’s revenue was up 35.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $4.51 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that LPL Financial Holdings Inc. will post 24.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

LPL Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. LPL Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.57%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of LPL Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Clearstead Advisors LLC increased its position in LPL Financial by 3,650.0% during the 4th quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 75 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Core Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in LPL Financial during the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in LPL Financial by 580.0% in the 1st quarter. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 136 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinpoint Asset Management Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in LPL Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on LPLA. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of LPL Financial from $300.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of LPL Financial in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of LPL Financial from $408.00 to $428.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of LPL Financial from $394.00 to $401.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on LPL Financial from $374.00 to $387.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $406.69.

About LPL Financial

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.