Stifel Nicolaus Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Stock Price

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) had its price target dropped by equities researchers at Stifel Nicolaus from $216.00 to $211.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “hold” rating on the industrial products company’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price suggests a potential upside of 6.96% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. 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 research report on Thursday, November 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $229.50.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $197.27 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. Lincoln Electric has a 12-month low of $169.51 and a 12-month high of $261.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $199.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $196.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.18.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LECO. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 12.9% during the 3rd 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 grew its stake 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 buying an additional 61,640 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 81.9% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,097,965 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $210,831,000 after buying an additional 494,464 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 328,743 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $61,629,000 after buying an additional 6,912 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Lincoln Electric by 18,413.8% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 258,267 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $49,592,000 after purchasing an additional 256,872 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.