Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Reduces Stock Position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. $LECO

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC decreased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 21.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,864 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 795 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $594,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 16.2% during the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,351,223 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $255,597,000 after buying an additional 188,104 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the first quarter worth about $28,548,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 195.2% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 223,025 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $42,187,000 after buying an additional 147,483 shares during the period. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 576.6% during the first quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 78,840 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $14,913,000 after buying an additional 67,187 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 126.2% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 110,527 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $20,680,000 after buying an additional 61,670 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on LECO shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Roth Capital started coverage on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research report on Friday, September 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $279.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $236.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 11th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $239.33.

Insider Activity

In other Lincoln Electric news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 12,387 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.36, for a total value of $3,014,500.32. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 55,866 shares in the company, valued at $13,595,549.76. The trade was a 18.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.23, for a total transaction of $233,230.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 9,177 shares in the company, valued at $2,140,351.71. This represents a 9.83% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,692 shares of company stock worth $5,745,148. 2.63% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 0.1%

LECO stock opened at $238.31 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.68. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $161.11 and a one year high of $249.19. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $239.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $214.14.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced 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 company had revenue of $1.09 billion for 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%. Lincoln Electric’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.34 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.79 per share. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.71%.

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.