Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Monday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $221.67.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of LECO stock opened at $198.80 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $11.22 billion, a PE ratio of 23.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.14. Lincoln Electric has a 1 year low of $169.51 and a 1 year high of $261.13. The business’s fifty day moving average is $189.82 and its 200-day moving average is $198.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.85.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.09. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.93% and a return on equity of 40.03%. The firm had revenue of $983.76 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.07 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.40 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Lincoln Electric will post 8.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is an increase from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 33.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total value of $193,556.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 11,178 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,966,880.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LECO. Entropy Technologies LP grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 31.7% during the third quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 4,575 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $878,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter worth about $207,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its position in Lincoln Electric by 18.0% during the 3rd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 4,559 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $875,000 after purchasing an additional 695 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 60.2% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 423 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 7,326 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,407,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

About Lincoln Electric

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells welding, cutting, and brazing products worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Americas Welding, International Welding, and The Harris Products Group. It offers brazing and soldering filler metals, arc welding equipment, plasma and oxyfuel cutting systems, wire feeding systems, fume control equipment, welding accessories, and specialty gas regulators, and education solutions, as well as a portfolio of automated solutions for joining, cutting, material handling, module assembly, and end of line testing, as well as involved in brazing and soldering alloys, and in the retail business in the United States.