GSG Advisors LLC Reduces Position in Lincoln National Co. (NYSE:LNC)

GSG Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Lincoln National Co. (NYSE:LNC) by 27.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,436 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,789 shares during the quarter. GSG Advisors LLC’s holdings in Lincoln National were worth $230,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln National in the 2nd quarter valued at $142,148,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln National by 59.2% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,086,324 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $95,985,000 after acquiring an additional 1,147,896 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln National by 3,488.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 966,379 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,669,000 after acquiring an additional 939,447 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln National in the 1st quarter valued at $28,649,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln National by 49.5% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,150,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $66,892,000 after acquiring an additional 711,951 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Lincoln National from $30.00 to $29.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 19th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Lincoln National in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $34.00 target price for the company. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Lincoln National from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Lincoln National from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lincoln National from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.00.

Lincoln National Stock Performance

NYSE:LNC opened at $34.86 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.27. The company has a fifty day moving average of $31.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.94 billion, a PE ratio of 24.90, a P/E/G ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 1.79. Lincoln National Co. has a fifty-two week low of $21.59 and a fifty-two week high of $36.98.

Lincoln National (NYSE:LNC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The financial services provider reported $2.06 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.42. The business had revenue of $4.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.61 billion. Lincoln National had a net margin of 2.51% and a return on equity of 18.15%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.23 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Lincoln National Co. will post 6.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln National Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.16%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. Lincoln National’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 128.57%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP John Christopher Kennedy sold 2,863 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.00, for a total value of $103,068.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 99,644 shares in the company, valued at $3,587,184. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln National Profile

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.