Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $225.17.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on LECO. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $195.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LECO. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in Lincoln Electric by 8.0% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 12,491 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,356,000 after acquiring an additional 924 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 20.9% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 28,963 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,464,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Lincoln Electric by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,290 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $238,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp lifted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 1.2% in the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 200,908 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $37,899,000 after purchasing an additional 2,311 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Impact Partnership Wealth LLC boosted its position in Lincoln Electric by 99.2% during the second quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 1,183 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $223,000 after buying an additional 589 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $187.47 on Friday. Lincoln Electric has a 52 week low of $169.51 and a 52 week high of $261.13. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $203.95 and its 200-day moving average is $195.87. The firm has a market cap of $10.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.85.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.09. The firm 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 in the prior year, the business earned $2.40 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Lincoln Electric will post 8.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend 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.