Hennessy Advisors Inc. Sells 154,700 Shares of Lincoln National Corporation $LNC

Hennessy Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) by 9.9% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,402,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 154,700 shares during the period. Lincoln National makes up 1.6% of Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Lincoln National were worth $48,509,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of LNC. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln National by 4,639.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 317,373 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $11,397,000 after purchasing an additional 310,677 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lincoln National during the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Vest Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Lincoln National during the first quarter valued at approximately $11,379,000. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln National by 11.0% during the first quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 10,438 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $375,000 after purchasing an additional 1,032 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Range Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln National by 4.4% during the first quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 35,410 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,272,000 after purchasing an additional 1,508 shares in the last quarter. 72.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LNC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Lincoln National in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Lincoln National from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Lincoln National from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Wolfe Research raised shares of Lincoln National to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Lincoln National from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP John Christopher Kennedy sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.29, for a total transaction of $196,450.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 123,815 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,864,691.35. This represents a 3.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.51% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln National Stock Up 1.8%

Lincoln National stock opened at $41.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.26 and a current ratio of 0.26. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $35.80. The company has a market cap of $7.79 billion, a PE ratio of 7.17, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.43. Lincoln National Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $27.58 and a fifty-two week high of $43.66.

Lincoln National (NYSE:LNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $2.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.45. The business had revenue of $4.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.65 billion. Lincoln National had a return on equity of 19.14% and a net margin of 6.34%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.87 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Lincoln National Corporation will post 7.69 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln National Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.4%. Lincoln National’s payout ratio is presently 31.41%.

About Lincoln National

Lincoln National Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates multiple insurance and retirement businesses in the United States. It operates in four segments: Life Insurance, Annuities, Group Protection, and Retirement Plan Services. The Life Insurance segment provides life insurance products, including term insurance, universal life insurance (UL), indexed universal life insurance, variable universal life insurance (VUL), linked-benefit UL and VUL products, and critical illness and long-term care riders.