WCM Investment Management LLC Acquires New Stake in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 1,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 18.0% during the 3rd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 4,559 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $875,000 after purchasing an additional 695 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd grew its position in Lincoln Electric by 60.2% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 423 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 7,326 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,407,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7,184.9% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 30,961 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,964,000 after acquiring an additional 30,536 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 39.7% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 40,453 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $7,838,000 after acquiring an additional 11,490 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lincoln Electric

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on LECO shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $221.67.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 1.7 %

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

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This is a boost from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is presently 35.80%.

Lincoln Electric 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.