Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.75 Per Share

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 17th,Zacks Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.75 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71.

Lincoln Electric has increased its dividend payment by an average of 9.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 30 years. Lincoln Electric has a payout ratio of 32.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Lincoln Electric to earn $9.26 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.4%.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Lincoln Electric stock opened at $189.86 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.71 billion, a PE ratio of 22.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.16. Lincoln Electric has a 52 week low of $169.51 and a 52 week high of $261.13. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $204.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $195.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.09. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. The firm had revenue of $983.76 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.07 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.40 EPS. Lincoln Electric’s revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Lincoln Electric will post 8.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on LECO. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $195.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $225.17.

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.