Brokerages Set Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Price Target at $225.17

Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $225.17.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on LECO shares. StockNews.com upgraded Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $195.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LECO. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 8.0% in the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 12,491 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,356,000 after acquiring an additional 924 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 20.9% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 28,963 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,464,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 8.8% during the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,290 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $238,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 200,908 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $37,899,000 after buying an additional 2,311 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Impact Partnership Wealth LLC grew its position in Lincoln Electric by 99.2% during the second quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 1,183 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $223,000 after buying an additional 589 shares during the period. 79.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Lincoln Electric Trading Up 0.7 %

LECO opened at $186.15 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $203.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $195.81. Lincoln Electric has a 1-year low of $169.51 and a 1-year high of $261.13. The company has a market cap of $10.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last issued its earnings results 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 return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. The business had revenue of $983.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.07 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Lincoln Electric will post 8.74 EPS 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 given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a positive change from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.80%.

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.