LPL Financial Holdings Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.30 (NASDAQ:LPLA)

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 30th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.30 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 20th.

LPL Financial has raised its dividend by an average of 6.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 1 years. LPL Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 6.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect LPL Financial to earn $19.11 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 6.3%.

LPL Financial Stock Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ LPLA traded up $3.06 during trading on Thursday, hitting $268.55. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 43,895 shares, compared to its average volume of 536,042. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.77. The company has a market cap of $20.06 billion, a PE ratio of 20.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $264.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $242.70. LPL Financial has a fifty-two week low of $179.00 and a fifty-two week high of $276.12.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $3.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.33 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $2.64 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.55 billion. LPL Financial had a return on equity of 56.36% and a net margin of 9.71%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $4.21 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that LPL Financial will post 15.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on LPLA. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $305.00 target price on shares of LPL Financial in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upgraded LPL Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $254.00 to $315.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on LPL Financial from $260.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Raymond James began coverage on LPL Financial in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. They set an “underperform” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on LPL Financial from $302.00 to $312.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $276.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other LPL Financial news, CEO Dan H. Arnold sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.35, for a total transaction of $2,563,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 137,044 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,131,229.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Dan H. Arnold sold 7,089 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.66, for a total value of $1,883,263.74. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 133,169 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,377,676.54. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dan H. Arnold sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.35, for a total value of $2,563,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 137,044 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,131,229.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 60,151 shares of company stock worth $15,911,088 in the last quarter. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

LPL Financial Company Profile

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.