Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Has $265,000 Stock Position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 1,423.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,219 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,139 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $265,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Andina Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $304,000. Mach 1 Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter worth $228,000. CM Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 25,909.0% during the 4th quarter. CM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 178,942 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $39,040,000 after buying an additional 178,254 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Lincoln Electric by 38.3% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 17,397 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,783,000 after buying an additional 4,820 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 8,965 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,955,000 after acquiring an additional 647 shares during the period. 79.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $231.15 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $243.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $222.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.15 billion, a PE ratio of 24.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.23. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $164.00 and a 12-month high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $981.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 13.23% and a return on equity of 43.81%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.13 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Sunday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 30.15%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lincoln Electric

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on LECO shares. KeyCorp increased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $232.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a report on Monday, April 29th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $241.00 to $238.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $257.00 to $252.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $228.00.

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.