Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) SVP Michael J. Whitehead Sells 1,100 Shares

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total value of $193,556.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,178 shares in the company, valued at $1,966,880.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $174.45 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $9.89 billion, a PE ratio of 18.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a quick ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $193.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $215.07. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $164.00 and a 52 week high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.04. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 42.24% and a net margin of 12.48%. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.44 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

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 given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 30.15%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on LECO shares. StockNews.com cut Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. 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. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price 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. Finally, Loop Capital cut their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $218.29.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,709,315 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,458,387,000 after buying an additional 15,062 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 48.0% during the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,747,083 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $518,210,000 after acquiring an additional 891,111 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.0% during 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. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter valued at $336,627,000. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its position in Lincoln Electric by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 687,841 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $149,578,000 after purchasing an additional 67,867 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.