Hudson Bay Capital Management LP Buys 7,042 Shares of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. $LPLA

Hudson Bay Capital Management LP lifted its position in LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 99,118 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,042 shares during the quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP’s holdings in LPL Financial were worth $32,976,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in LPL Financial during the second quarter worth about $26,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its stake in LPL Financial by 912.5% in the 3rd quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 81 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Chung Wu Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in LPL Financial in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Eastern Bank lifted its position in shares of LPL Financial by 72.0% during the 3rd quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 86 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of LPL Financial by 116.2% during the 2nd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 80 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on LPLA. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of LPL Financial in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on LPL Financial from $399.00 to $378.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 30th. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of LPL Financial in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Wolfe Research set a $478.00 price objective on LPL Financial in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on LPL Financial from $462.00 to $447.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, LPL Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $428.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at LPL Financial

In other LPL Financial news, Director Marc Eliot Cohen sold 1,088 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.72, for a total transaction of $336,975.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,362,768. This trade represents a 19.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Matthew J. Audette sold 1,581 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $320.50, for a total transaction of $506,710.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 21,382 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,852,931. This trade represents a 6.88% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 6,990 shares of company stock valued at $2,201,837 over the last three months. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

LPL Financial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LPLA opened at $288.16 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.45, a quick ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $340.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $347.99. LPL Financial Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $262.83 and a 1-year high of $403.58. The firm has a market cap of $23.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.59.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $5.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.82 by $0.41. The firm had revenue of $4.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.90 billion. LPL Financial had a return on equity of 34.19% and a net margin of 5.08%.The business’s revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.25 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that LPL Financial Holdings Inc. will post 19.35 earnings per share for the current year.

LPL Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. LPL Financial’s payout ratio is currently 10.90%.

About LPL Financial

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.