898 Shares in LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) Acquired by Lifestyle Asset Management Inc.

Lifestyle Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $293,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC increased its stake in LPL Financial by 24.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,322,571 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $772,930,000 after acquiring an additional 650,675 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in LPL Financial by 2.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,436,831 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $333,581,000 after purchasing an additional 36,474 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in LPL Financial by 27.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,275,136 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $296,635,000 after purchasing an additional 276,166 shares in the last quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP lifted its position in LPL Financial by 9.5% during the second quarter. Darlington Partners Capital Management LP now owns 783,290 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $218,773,000 after purchasing an additional 68,276 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in LPL Financial by 31.1% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 774,175 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $216,227,000 after purchasing an additional 183,755 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on LPLA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of LPL Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $288.00 to $397.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. StockNews.com upgraded LPL Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 9th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on LPL Financial from $303.00 to $309.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. TD Cowen raised LPL Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $277.00 to $413.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on LPL Financial from $309.00 to $282.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $351.50.

LPL Financial Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of LPLA opened at $358.78 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.98, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 2.16 and a quick ratio of 2.16. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $187.19 and a 1-year high of $361.63. The company has a 50-day moving average of $329.74 and a 200 day moving average of $269.38.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $4.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.69 by $0.47. LPL Financial had a net margin of 8.73% and a return on equity of 49.47%. The firm had revenue of $3.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.74 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that LPL Financial Holdings Inc. will post 16.17 EPS for the current year.

LPL Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.33%. LPL Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.02%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Aneri Jambusaria sold 305 shares of LPL Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.94, for a total transaction of $101,241.70. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,301,204.80. This trade represents a 7.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

About LPL Financial

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.