Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Thursday morning.

LECO has been the topic of several other reports. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $178.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $187.00 to $179.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $219.00.

Lincoln Electric Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of Lincoln Electric stock opened at $177.38 on Thursday. Lincoln Electric has a 1 year low of $161.11 and a 1 year high of $242.65. The firm has a market cap of $9.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a 50-day moving average of $193.18 and a 200 day moving average of $196.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 1.25.

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

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.81%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total transaction of $4,536,505.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,777,590.20. This represents a 27.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.41% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 28.7% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 431 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter valued at about $499,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in Lincoln Electric in the 4th quarter worth about $496,000. US Bancorp DE increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 5,262 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $986,000 after acquiring an additional 252 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 358,331 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $67,176,000 after acquiring an additional 2,088 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Company 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.