Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $219.43.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $209.00 to $213.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a report on Monday, April 29th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $213.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. StockNews.com raised Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 24th.

Lincoln Electric Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of LECO stock opened at $197.98 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $11.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.02, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.15. Lincoln Electric has a fifty-two week low of $164.00 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $193.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $219.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 2.06.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 42.24%. Lincoln Electric’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.44 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 9.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.15%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 4th quarter worth approximately $336,627,000. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its position in Lincoln Electric by 48.0% during the second quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,747,083 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $518,210,000 after buying an additional 891,111 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 2,984.6% during the fourth quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 439,065 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $95,479,000 after buying an additional 424,831 shares during the last quarter. CM Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 25,909.0% in the fourth 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. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,856,125 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $474,129,000 after acquiring an additional 121,914 shares during 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.