LAKELAND FINANCIAL CORP (LKFN)
Sector: Financials
2026 Annual Meeting Analysis
LAKELAND FINANCIAL CORP · Meeting: April 14, 2026
Directors FOR
0
Directors AGAINST
13
Say on Pay
FOR
Auditor
FOR
Director Elections
ELECTION OF DIRECTORS
Against Analysis
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, which meets or exceeds the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger; as an executive director (likely the CEO), Mr. Findlay is subject to the same TSR trigger as all other directors, and this vote against him as a director is independent of any Say on Pay determination.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, meeting the 50-point trigger for companies with low-positive returns; without confirmed evidence this director joined within the past 24 months, a vote against is warranted under the underperformance policy.
For Analysis
All 13 director nominees are flagged for a vote against based on the TSR underperformance trigger. Lakeland Financial's 3-year price return of 15.5% (low-positive tier) trailed the community bank benchmark QABA — First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index — by 50.8 percentage points, which exactly meets and exceeds the 50-point threshold required to trigger a vote against for the low-positive TSR tier. The 5-year price return of only 2.1% does not provide a mitigating track record — applying the 5-year check, a 2.1% absolute return falls in the low-positive tier (0–20%), and the underperformance versus QABA over that longer period would need to be below 50 percentage points to downgrade the vote to FOR; given the weak 5-year return, this mitigation is unlikely to apply. Individual director tenure data was not available in the filing excerpt provided, so the 24-month new-director exemption could not be applied; shareholders should verify individual join dates before voting.
Say on Pay
✓ FORCEO
David M. Findlay
Total Comp
N/A
Prior Support
N/A
The proxy filing excerpt provided does not include a detailed compensation summary table, so it is not possible to apply the full quantitative benchmarking analysis (individual pay levels vs. title/sector/market cap benchmarks, pay mix percentages, or variable pay thresholds). Under the policy, when data is insufficient to confirm a specific trigger, the default vote is FOR. However, shareholders should be aware that LKFN's 3-year stock return of 15.5% significantly trailed the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, which would be a concern if variable/incentive pay is found to be above benchmark — if full compensation details reveal above-benchmark incentive pay alongside this underperformance, the pay-for-performance alignment trigger could fire. A medium confidence rating applies given the limited data available.
Auditor Ratification
✓ FORAuditor
Crowe LLP
Tenure
N/A
Audit Fees
N/A
Non-Audit Fees
N/A
The proxy filing excerpt does not provide auditor fee data or tenure information, so neither the non-audit fee ratio trigger nor the tenure trigger can be evaluated; per policy, the absence of confirmable data means these triggers do not fire, and the default vote is FOR. Crowe LLP is a large national accounting firm (one of the top 10 U.S. firms) and is appropriate for a $1.6 billion community bank, satisfying the auditor adequacy standard. No material restatements are disclosed in the filing excerpt.
Actual Vote Results
Meeting held April 14, 2026
Director Elections
| Nominee | % FOR | Votes For | Withheld / Against | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel B. Starr | 99.0% | 19.5M | 189,252 | ✓ Elected |
| Melinda J. Creighton Truex | 98.9% | 19.5M | 209,397 | ✓ Elected |
| Darrianne P. Christian | 98.5% | 19.4M | 287,514 | ✓ Elected |
| David M. Findlay | 98.3% | 19.4M | 336,737 | ✓ Elected |
| Brian J. Smith | 97.6% | 19.2M | 471,822 | ✓ Elected |
| Kristin L. Pruitt | 97.2% | 19.2M | 551,855 | ✓ Elected |
| M. Scott Welch | 97.1% | 19.1M | 562,934 | ✓ Elected |
| Emily E. Pichon | 97.1% | 19.1M | 569,987 | ✓ Elected |
| Steven D. Ross | 97.0% | 19.1M | 590,651 | ✓ Elected |
| Robert E. Bartels, Jr. | 96.9% | 19.1M | 614,607 | ✓ Elected |
| Blake W. Augsburger | 94.7% | 18.7M | 1.0M | ✓ Elected |
| Bradley J. Toothaker | 78.9% | 15.6M | 4.2M | ✓ Elected |
| A. Faraz Abbasi | 78.3% | 15.4M | 4.3M | ✓ Elected |
Say on Pay
For 14.7M · Against 4.9M · Abstain 111,686
Auditor Ratification
For 22.3M · Against 298,203 · Abstain 3,031
Overall Assessment
The 2026 Lakeland Financial annual meeting presents three standard proposals: director elections, a Say on Pay vote, and auditor ratification. The most significant concern is the board's stock performance — LKFN's 3-year return of 15.5% lagged the community bank benchmark QABA (First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index) by 50.8 percentage points, triggering a vote against all 13 director nominees under the underperformance policy, while the Say on Pay and auditor ratification proposals receive a FOR vote based on available information.