New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its position in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 105,943 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 3,500 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.19% of Lincoln Electric worth $19,861,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LECO. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 54.1% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 299 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 308.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 335 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. HM Payson & Co. bought a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter worth about $65,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Lincoln Electric by 37.5% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 389 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted 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 acquiring an additional 159 shares during the period. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of Lincoln Electric stock opened at $207.27 on Friday. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.51 and a 1-year high of $261.13. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $194.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $196.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.70 billion, a PE ratio of 25.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.54. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $995.94 million. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.19% and a net margin of 11.63%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 36.81%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lincoln Electric news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total value of $4,536,505.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,777,590.20. This represents a 27.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on LECO shares. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Barclays increased their price target on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $233.60.

Lincoln Electric Profile

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.