Vest Financial LLC Has $1.57 Million Holdings in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Vest Financial LLC grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 38.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,157 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,244 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $1,566,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 54.3% in the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 21,939 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,604,000 after purchasing an additional 7,718 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 62.7% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 65,079 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $16,442,000 after buying an additional 25,082 shares in the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 21.1% in the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 45,409 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,593,000 after buying an additional 7,922 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 valued at $1,458,387,000 after buying an additional 15,062 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 142.9% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 13,702 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,500,000 after buying an additional 8,061 shares in the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on LECO. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $221.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total value of $193,556.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 11,178 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,966,880.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Lincoln Electric Trading Up 2.5 %

LECO stock opened at $203.10 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 2.06 and a quick ratio of 1.31. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $189.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $202.21. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $164.00 and a one year high of $261.13. The stock has a market cap of $11.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.14.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 42.24%. Lincoln Electric’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.44 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.95 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a boost from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is presently 31.85%.

Lincoln Electric 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.