Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,140,000 shares, a drop of 13.6% from the May 31st total of 1,320,000 shares. Currently, 2.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 368,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LECO. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $241.00 to $238.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $252.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 24th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Lincoln Electric from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Loop Capital lowered their price target on Lincoln Electric from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $225.29.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 174.4% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 107 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 11.7% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 16,800 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,291,000 after purchasing an additional 1,765 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 202.8% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 31,221 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $7,975,000 after buying an additional 20,911 shares in the last quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 93,748 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $23,947,000 after buying an additional 322 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $385,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

NASDAQ LECO opened at $188.64 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.03, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.17. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $208.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $225.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 2.24. Lincoln Electric has a fifty-two week low of $164.00 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $2.23 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 43.81% and a net margin of 13.23%. Lincoln Electric’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.13 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 9.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Sunday, June 30th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.15%.

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.