Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Receives $233.60 Average Target Price from Analysts

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $233.60.

LECO has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lincoln Electric news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,777,590.20. This trade represents a 27.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LECO. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter worth about $68,000. Parr Mcknight Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter worth about $848,000. Woodline Partners LP bought a new position in Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter worth about $551,000. Sovereign s Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter worth about $1,772,000. Finally, Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. bought a new position in Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter worth about $337,000. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Lincoln Electric Trading Up 3.0 %

LECO stock opened at $190.50 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $197.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $196.99. The company has a market cap of $10.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.37, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. Lincoln Electric has a 52 week low of $169.51 and a 52 week high of $261.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87.

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

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 36.81%.

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.