Brokerages Set Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Price Target at $233.60

Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $233.60.

LECO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price target on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. KeyCorp upped their price target on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LECO opened at $190.50 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $197.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $196.99. Lincoln Electric has a 1-year low of $169.51 and a 1-year high of $261.13. The stock has a market cap of $10.69 billion, a PE ratio of 23.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $995.94 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 9.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.81%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total transaction of $4,536,505.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,660 shares in the company, valued at $11,777,590.20. This trade represents a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.1% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 7,326 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,407,000 after purchasing an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 60.2% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 423 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 18.0% in the 3rd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 4,559 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $875,000 after purchasing an additional 695 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $207,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 31.7% during the 3rd quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 4,575 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $878,000 after acquiring an additional 1,100 shares in the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.