Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Cuts Position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lowered its position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 434,650 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 28,480 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned approximately 0.77% of Lincoln Electric worth $83,462,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Lincoln Electric by 174.4% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 107 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in Lincoln Electric during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Lincoln Electric by 97.9% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 283 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 41.5% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 300 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 308.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 335 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total value 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 approximately $1,966,880.88. The trade was a 8.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on LECO shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased 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. KeyCorp upped their price target on Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $220.00.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 0.7 %

Lincoln Electric stock opened at $206.10 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $11.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 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. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $194.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $197.19. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.51 and a 52 week high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $983.76 million during 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 business’s revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.46%. This is an increase from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is currently 33.89%.

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.