Truist Financial Corp Purchases 262 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 19,972 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 262 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $3,744,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LECO. V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its stake in Lincoln Electric by 54.1% in the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 299 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 308.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 335 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 253 shares during the period. HM Payson & Co. acquired a new stake in Lincoln Electric during the third quarter worth approximately $65,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Lincoln Electric by 37.5% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 389 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Lincoln Electric by 60.2% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 423 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on LECO. KeyCorp increased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.60.

Lincoln Electric Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ LECO opened at $207.47 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $11.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. 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 $195.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $196.53.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.54. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.63% and a return on equity of 40.19%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.94 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is 36.81%.

Insider Activity at Lincoln Electric

In other news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total value of $4,536,505.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 54,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,777,590.20. This represents a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.