LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) Stock Has Consensus Price Target of $409.69

Shares of LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LPLA) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $400.60.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LPLA. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $500.00 target price on shares of LPL Financial in a report on Monday, October 5th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on LPL Financial from $390.00 to $370.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on LPL Financial from $362.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of LPL Financial in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on LPL Financial from $365.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st.

Trending Headlines about LPL Financial

Here are the key news stories impacting LPL Financial this week:

• Positive Sentiment: LPL added Anchor Financial Partners to its broker-dealer and RIA platforms. The team reportedly serves approximately $525 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement-plan assets, adding to LPL’s advisor network and asset base. LPL Financial Welcomes Anchor Financial Partners
• Positive Sentiment: A Bell Global Equities Fund investor letter pushed back against concerns that artificial intelligence could disrupt LPL’s advisor-driven business model, supporting the long-term value of its independent wealth-management platform. Bell Global Equities Fund on AI Disruption Concerns
• Neutral Sentiment: UBS lowered its target from $390 to $369 but maintained a Buy rating, implying substantial upside based on the referenced share price. This indicates analysts remain divided rather than uniformly bearish. UBS LPL Financial Ratings
• Negative Sentiment: TD Cowen, Barclays, Wells Fargo, Truist Financial and JPMorgan Chase all issued lower expectations or price targets for LPLA. TD Cowen’s revised target was reported at $356, while the cluster of reductions weakened investor sentiment and contributed to the stock’s decline. TD Cowen Cuts LPL Financial Target
• Negative Sentiment: Recent reported insider activity showed four open-market sales and no purchases over six months, adding a modest additional cautionary signal.

LPL Financial Stock Performance

Shares of LPL Financial stock opened at $283.74 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $330.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $323.02. LPL Financial has a 12 month low of $260.15 and a 12 month high of $400.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.35, a PEG ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.39 and a quick ratio of 2.39.

LPL Financial (NASDAQ:LPLA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The financial services provider reported $5.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.69 by $0.28. LPL Financial had a net margin of 6.83% and a return on equity of 32.36%. The firm had revenue of $5.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $5.20 EPS. LPL Financial’s quarterly revenue was up 17.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that LPL Financial will post 23.50 earnings per share for the current year.

LPL Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 12th. LPL Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 9.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Aneri Jambusaria sold 308 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $357.36, for a total transaction of $110,066.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,107 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,182,397.52. This trade represents a 4.80% 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. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Greg Gates sold 4,119 shares of LPL Financial stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $355.38, for a total transaction of $1,463,810.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 23,602 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,678.76. This trade represents a 14.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 4,867 shares of company stock valued at $1,726,944 over the last three months. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LPLA. National Pension Service lifted its position in shares of LPL Financial by 14.8% during the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 161,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $45,438,000 after acquiring an additional 20,758 shares during the period. SCS Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of LPL Financial in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $60,142,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in LPL Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $229,756,000. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in LPL Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,333,189,000. Finally, Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in LPL Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,182,595,000. 95.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About LPL Financial

LPL Financial Holdings Inc is a financial services company that supports independent financial advisors and institutions across the United States. Through its primary subsidiary, LPL Financial LLC, the company provides brokerage, investment advisory, and custodial services, enabling advisors to serve individual investors, families, retirement plans, and other clients.

LPL’s platform includes access to brokerage and advisory products, securities clearing and custody, trading and operations support, technology, compliance services, investment research, and practice-management resources.