GAMMA Investing LLC Has $200,000 Stake in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

GAMMA Investing LLC lowered its stake in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 6.0% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,059 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 67 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $200,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC now owns 181,094 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $39,381,000 after purchasing an additional 4,770 shares during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 54.3% during the 1st quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 21,939 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,604,000 after buying an additional 7,718 shares during the period. Telos Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Lincoln Electric in the 4th quarter valued at $925,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 62.7% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 65,079 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $16,442,000 after acquiring an additional 25,082 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Lincoln Electric by 2,984.6% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 439,065 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $95,479,000 after acquiring an additional 424,831 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LECO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Lincoln Electric from $213.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a report on Monday, April 29th. KeyCorp cut their price target on Lincoln Electric from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 24th. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $219.43.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LECO traded up $3.30 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $194.05. The stock had a trading volume of 89,702 shares, compared to its average volume of 342,734. The company has a market cap of $11.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.25, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.15. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $164.00 and a twelve month high of $261.13. The business’s fifty day moving average is $193.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $222.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 2.06 and a quick ratio of 1.49.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.04. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 42.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.44 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.03 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 30.15%.

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.