Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) PT Raised to $241.00

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) had its price target boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $239.00 to $241.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a hold rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on LECO. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Lincoln Electric from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Lincoln Electric from $232.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on Lincoln Electric in a research report on Monday, January 8th. They set an underweight rating and a $178.00 price target on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $210.50.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Lincoln Electric stock opened at $238.36 on Wednesday. Lincoln Electric has a 12 month low of $155.21 and a 12 month high of $261.13. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $248.62 and its 200-day moving average is $217.94. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The company has a market capitalization of $13.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.44, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.20.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.26. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 45.09% and a net margin of 13.01%. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Lincoln Electric will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is presently 30.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Geoffrey P. Allman sold 3,306 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.33, for a total transaction of $834,202.98. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,150 shares in the company, valued at $2,308,819.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Geoffrey P. Allman sold 3,306 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.33, for a total value of $834,202.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,308,819.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Gabriel Bruno sold 12,820 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.95, for a total value of $3,178,719.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 22,402 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,554,575.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,954,544 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $748,605,000 after acquiring an additional 63,007 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 0.3% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,289,641 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $894,478,000 after purchasing an additional 15,200 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 2.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,958,667 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $373,594,000 after purchasing an additional 59,991 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,734,211 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $377,122,000 after purchasing an additional 12,773 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter valued at $336,627,000. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.