Analysts Set Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) PT at $220.00

Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $220.00.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. 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 report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 891,111 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 12.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,462,232 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $474,527,000 after purchasing an additional 280,466 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 5.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,204,549 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $231,345,000 after purchasing an additional 61,640 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 81.9% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,097,965 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $210,831,000 after purchasing an additional 494,464 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 525,647 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $99,155,000 after purchasing an additional 38,206 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of LECO opened at $212.00 on Tuesday. Lincoln Electric has a 1-year low of $169.51 and a 1-year high of $261.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $202.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $196.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.30, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.16.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.09. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.93% and a return on equity of 40.03%. The business had revenue of $983.76 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.07 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.40 earnings per share. Lincoln Electric’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric will post 8.75 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. This is a boost from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is presently 33.89%.

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.