Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Receives $228.00 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the eight analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $228.00.

LECO has been the subject of several research reports. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $232.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $241.00 to $238.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $257.00 to $252.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research report on Monday, April 29th.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of LECO stock traded down $1.29 on Friday, hitting $226.97. The stock had a trading volume of 282,271 shares, compared to its average volume of 287,663. The business has a 50 day moving average of $241.23 and a 200 day moving average of $224.63. The stock has a market cap of $12.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 2.24 and a quick ratio of 1.49. Lincoln Electric has a 12-month low of $164.00 and a 12-month high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $981.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 13.23% and a return on equity of 43.81%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.13 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Lincoln Electric will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 30th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. Lincoln Electric's dividend payout ratio is presently 30.15%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Gabriel Bruno sold 12,820 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.95, for a total value of $3,178,719.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 22,402 shares in the company, valued at $5,554,575.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Gabriel Bruno sold 12,820 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.95, for a total value of $3,178,719.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 22,402 shares in the company, valued at $5,554,575.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Geoffrey P. Allman sold 3,306 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.33, for a total transaction of $834,202.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9,150 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,308,819.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 2.63% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Lincoln Electric by 0.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,709,315 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,458,387,000 after purchasing an additional 15,062 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in Lincoln Electric by 7.0% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,856,125 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $474,129,000 after purchasing an additional 121,914 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $336,627,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Lincoln Electric by 19.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,049,854 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $190,853,000 after purchasing an additional 174,278 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its stake in Lincoln Electric by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 687,841 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $149,578,000 after purchasing an additional 67,867 shares in the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Lincoln Electric Company Profile

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.