Empowered Funds LLC Takes $5.47 Million Position in LPL Financial Holdings Inc. $LPLA

Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in shares of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 19,405 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,466,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of LPLA. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in LPL Financial in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,333,189,000. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new position in LPL Financial during the second quarter valued at $1,182,595,000. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC purchased a new stake in LPL Financial in the fourth quarter worth $450,493,000. SurgoCap Partners LP purchased a new stake in LPL Financial in the second quarter worth $299,487,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of LPL Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $371,616,000. Institutional investors own 95.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at LPL Financial

In other news, Director Matthew Enyedi sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $352.72, for a total transaction of $352,720.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 13,121 shares in the company, valued at $4,628,039.12. This represents a 7.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Greg Gates sold 4,119 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $355.38, for a total transaction of $1,463,810.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 23,602 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,678.76. The trade was a 14.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 5,735 shares of company stock valued at $2,020,845 in the last quarter. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

LPL Financial Price Performance

LPL Financial stock opened at $370.14 on Tuesday. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $260.15 and a one year high of $400.16. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $334.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $314.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.39 and a quick ratio of 2.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.52, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.48.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $5.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.39 by $0.45. The company had revenue of $5.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.04 billion. LPL Financial had a return on equity of 32.20% and a net margin of 5.13%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.51 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that LPL Financial Holdings Inc. will post 24.09 EPS for the current year.

LPL Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th were issued 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 of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. LPL Financial’s payout ratio is presently 9.57%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LPLA. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of LPL Financial in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Barclays lifted their price objective on LPL Financial from $394.00 to $401.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $454.00 price objective on shares of LPL Financial in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of LPL Financial from $330.00 to $372.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of LPL Financial from $374.00 to $387.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, LPL Financial has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $406.69.

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.