LPL Financial exploring potential sale: report

LPL Financial is exploring strategic alternatives, including a potential sale, according to a report late Tuesday from Reuters, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter. LPL would not comment on the report. “As a matter of policy, LPL does not comment on rumors or speculation,” spokesman Jeffrey Mochal wrote in an email. LPL's stock, which took a dive earlier this year, jumped in trading Tuesday. Shares of LPL opened at $30.67 on Tuesday and by the close they were trading close to $33, a jump of 7.6%. LPL shares traded as low as $16.50 in March when the company missed earnings by a wide mark. The nation's largest independent broker-dealer has also been fighting to correct a number of compliance problems; in 2014 and 2015, the company paid $70 million in fines and restitution to clients. LPL is working with investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on a sale process that has attracted other companies and private equity firms, Reuters reported. The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations were confidential, according to Reuters. (See: LPL Financial's problems keep piling up)