Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.75 (NASDAQ:LECO)

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.75 per share by the industrial products company on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

Lincoln Electric has raised its dividend by an average of 11.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 30 consecutive years. Lincoln Electric has a payout ratio of 30.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Lincoln Electric to earn $10.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.8%.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of LECO traded down $4.26 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $211.64. 203,442 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 285,001. The company has a market cap of $11.94 billion, a PE ratio of 25.97, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.18. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $194.84 and its 200-day moving average is $196.07. Lincoln Electric has a 52 week low of $169.51 and a 52 week high of $261.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.87.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.54. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.19% and a net margin of 11.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $995.94 million. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 9.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp increased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com raised Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $233.60.

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.