Barclays PLC Increases Stock Position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Barclays PLC raised its position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO - Free Report) by 85.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 49,789 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 22,899 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned 0.09% of Lincoln Electric worth $9,334,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LECO. Norges Bank bought a new position in Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter valued at about $307,344,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter valued at about $92,117,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,735,527 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $325,359,000 after buying an additional 234,515 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 121.7% in the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 268,229 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $50,284,000 after buying an additional 147,239 shares during the period. Finally, Distillate Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter valued at about $15,049,000. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com raised Lincoln Electric from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Barclays increased their price target on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $178.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Lincoln Electric from $187.00 to $179.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $219.00.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ LECO traded down $1.55 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $184.21. 382,101 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 326,825. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $161.11 and a one year high of $238.47. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $189.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $196.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.87. The company has a market cap of $10.32 billion, a PE ratio of 22.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.54. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.63% and a return on equity of 40.19%. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $995.94 million. On average, equities analysts predict that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. Lincoln Electric's payout ratio is 36.81%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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