Analysts Set Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Price Target at $221.67

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $221.67.

Several analysts have recently issued reports on LECO shares. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total transaction of $193,556.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,178 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,966,880.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LECO. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 142.9% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 13,702 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,500,000 after purchasing an additional 8,061 shares during the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 1st quarter valued at about $242,000. Fiduciary Family Office LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 15.7% in the 1st quarter. Fiduciary Family Office LLC now owns 2,515 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $642,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 200.5% in the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 652 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $167,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 65.7% in the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 1,697 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $434,000 after purchasing an additional 673 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 1.7 %

LECO opened at $214.54 on Friday. Lincoln Electric has a 52 week low of $169.51 and a 52 week high of $261.13. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $192.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $197.47. The firm has a market cap of $12.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.14. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $983.76 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $988.07 million. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.40 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Lincoln Electric will post 8.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.40%. This is an increase from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is 35.80%.

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.