There's an old saying on Wall Street about insider buying: there are many possible reasons to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy. Back on March 12, Lakeland Financial Corp's Director, M. Scott Welch, invested $562,314.00 into 10,000 shares of LKFN, for a cost per share of $56.23. Bargain hunters tend to pay particular attention to insider buys like this one, because presumably the only reason an insider would take their hard-earned cash and use it to buy stock of their company in the open market, is that they expect to make money. In trading on Monday, bargain hunters could buy shares of Lakeland Financial Corp (Symbol: LKFN) and achieve a cost basis even cheaper than Welch, with shares changing hands as low as $56.20 per share. Lakeland Financial Corp shares are currently trading off about 0.8% on the day. The chart below shows the one year performance of LKFN shares, versus its 200 day moving average:
Looking at the chart above, LKFN's low point in its 52 week range is $50 per share, with $69.40 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $56.15. By comparison, below is a table showing the prices at which LKFN insider buying was recorded over the last six months:
| Purchased | Insider | Title | Shares | Price/Share | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02/27/2026 | M. Scott Welch | Director | 10,000 | $57.95 | $579,500.00 |
| 03/09/2026 | M. Scott Welch | Director | 5,000 | $55.45 | $277,250.00 |
| 03/12/2026 | M. Scott Welch | Director | 10,000 | $56.23 | $562,314.00 |
The current annualized dividend paid by Lakeland Financial Corp is $2.08/share, currently paid in quarterly installments, and its most recent dividend ex-date was on 01/25/2026. Below is a long-term dividend history chart for LKFN, which can be of good help in judging whether the most recent dividend with approx. 3.7% annualized yield is likely to continue.
LKFN makes up 1.01% of the Invesco S&P SmallCap 600 GARP ETF (Symbol: GRPZ)
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YTD Return
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
