Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $210.50.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LECO. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $239.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Lincoln Electric in a report on Monday, January 8th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $178.00 price target for the company. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $232.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $238.36 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 2.24 and a quick ratio of 1.50. The firm has a market cap of $13.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $248.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $218.48. Lincoln Electric has a 1-year low of $155.21 and a 1-year high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $2.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 45.09%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.94 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 9.63 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is 30.31%.

Insider Transactions at Lincoln Electric

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LECO. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 194.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 106 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 1,422.2% during the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 137 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 81.1% during the 3rd quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. 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.