BNP Paribas Financial Markets Boosts Stock Holdings in LPL Financial Holdings Inc. $LPLA

BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in shares of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) by 8.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 35,304 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,884 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in LPL Financial were worth $12,610,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in LPL Financial during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Clearstead Advisors LLC increased its stake 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 buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. increased its stake in LPL Financial by 550.0% during the 4th quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 78 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Graney & King LLC increased its stake in LPL Financial by 49.5% during the 2nd quarter. Graney & King LLC now owns 139 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Entrust Financial LLC purchased a new stake in LPL Financial during the 4th quarter worth approximately $76,000. 95.66% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen dropped their price target on LPL Financial from $330.00 to $326.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of LPL Financial in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on LPL Financial from $447.00 to $374.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Barclays upped their price target on LPL Financial from $369.00 to $412.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price target on shares of LPL Financial in a research report on Monday, April 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $398.86.

LPL Financial Stock Performance

LPLA opened at $288.49 on Monday. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $260.15 and a one year high of $403.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.07 billion, a PE ratio of 25.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 0.50. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $302.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $331.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 2.56 and a current ratio of 2.56.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $5.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.49 by $0.11. LPL Financial had a return on equity of 31.26% and a net margin of 4.93%.The firm had revenue of $4.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.98 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.15 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 34.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that LPL Financial Holdings Inc. will post 22.98 EPS for the current year.

LPL Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 21st. LPL Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 10.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other LPL Financial news, CFO Matthew J. Audette sold 1,110 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.01, for a total transaction of $366,311.10. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 19,803 shares in the company, valued at $6,535,188.03. This represents a 5.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Marc Eliot Cohen sold 1,088 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.72, for a total value of $336,975.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,362,768. The trade was a 19.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 2,667 shares of company stock worth $855,871 over the last 90 days. 0.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

LPL Financial Profile

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.