Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $218.29.

LECO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Lincoln Electric from $209.00 to $213.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their price target on Lincoln Electric from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 24th.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Shares of LECO opened at $182.57 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $10.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.38, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.14. Lincoln Electric has a fifty-two week low of $164.00 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $193.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $211.90.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 42.24% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.44 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 8.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.15%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total transaction of $193,556.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 11,178 shares in the company, valued at $1,966,880.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in Lincoln Electric by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 1,459 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $317,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Lincoln Electric by 37.8% in the 4th quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,935 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $856,000 after purchasing an additional 1,079 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its position in Lincoln Electric by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 115,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,023,000 after acquiring an additional 3,780 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,241 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $487,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

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.