Stifel Nicolaus Issues Positive Forecast for Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Stock Price

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) had its price objective hoisted by equities research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $195.00 to $216.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “hold” rating on the industrial products company’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price target indicates a potential upside of 3.40% from the stock’s current price.

LECO has been the topic of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $225.17.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of LECO traded down $0.11 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $208.89. 45,931 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 313,134. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.85. The firm has a market cap of $11.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.16. Lincoln Electric has a 52-week low of $169.51 and a 52-week high of $261.13. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $203.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $195.61.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $983.76 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.07 million. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. Lincoln Electric’s revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric will post 8.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Elios Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter valued at $999,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.5% during the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 237,935 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $45,688,000 after purchasing an additional 7,962 shares during the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the second quarter worth about $834,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,042,000. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Lincoln Electric by 15.3% during the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 19,879 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,817,000 after buying an additional 2,642 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.