Jane Street Group LLC Increases Stock Position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. $LECO

Jane Street Group LLC raised its holdings in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 153.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 58,993 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 35,682 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC owned 0.11% of Lincoln Electric worth $11,159,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 279.6% in the first quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 353 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares in the last quarter. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $68,000. Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 77.1% during the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 425 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the period. YANKCOM Partnership raised its stake in Lincoln Electric by 12.2% during the first quarter. YANKCOM Partnership now owns 553 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $105,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Finally, Curat Global LLC purchased a new position in Lincoln Electric during the first quarter worth approximately $110,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on LECO. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Roth Capital began coverage on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research note on Friday, September 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $279.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $236.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $239.33.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

LECO opened at $236.40 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $235.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $207.72. The firm has a market cap of $13.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.56, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.22. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $161.11 and a twelve month high of $249.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 39.79%. The business’s revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.34 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lincoln Electric news, EVP Gabriel Bruno sold 7,305 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.42, for a total transaction of $1,770,878.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 29,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,254,903.34. This trade represents a 19.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 12,387 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.36, for a total transaction of $3,014,500.32. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,595,549.76. This represents a 18.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 22,692 shares of company stock valued at $5,511,918 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.41% 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.