California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 9,380 Shares of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. $LPLA

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) by 6.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 143,288 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 9,380 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in LPL Financial were worth $43,105,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dodge & Cox raised its stake in LPL Financial by 18.6% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 3,948,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,410,454,000 after purchasing an additional 619,715 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in LPL Financial by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,719,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,328,475,000 after buying an additional 477,094 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in LPL Financial by 37.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,625,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,294,869,000 after buying an additional 996,806 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in LPL Financial by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 3,377,553 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,206,371,000 after buying an additional 280,202 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in LPL Financial by 36.3% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,636,544 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $793,163,000 after buying an additional 702,061 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on LPLA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of LPL Financial from $390.00 to $408.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 price objective on shares of LPL Financial in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods began coverage on shares of LPL Financial in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $350.00 price objective for the company. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of LPL Financial from $330.00 to $326.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on LPL Financial from $395.00 to $391.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, LPL Financial presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $397.92.

Insider Transactions at LPL Financial

In related news, Director Aneri Jambusaria sold 308 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.00, for a total value of $94,248.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 6,415 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,962,990. This represents a 4.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

LPL Financial Stock Performance

LPL Financial stock opened at $327.96 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.56, a current ratio of 2.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26. The stock has a market cap of $26.23 billion, a PE ratio of 29.28, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.50. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $260.15 and a 12-month high of $403.58. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $294.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $317.74.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $5.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.49 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $4.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.98 billion. LPL Financial had a net margin of 4.93% and a return on equity of 31.26%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.15 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that LPL Financial Holdings Inc. will post 23.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

LPL Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st were given 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 currently 10.71%.

LPL Financial Company 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.