Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Upgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Tuesday.

LECO has been the topic of several other research reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $213.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Lincoln Electric from $209.00 to $213.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. KeyCorp dropped their price target 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. Oppenheimer reiterated a market perform rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Loop Capital dropped their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $219.43.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Shares of LECO traded up $0.57 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $189.65. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 212,471 shares, compared to its average volume of 342,521. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 2.06. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $192.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $221.45. Lincoln Electric has a one year low of $164.00 and a one year high of $261.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.79 billion, a PE ratio of 20.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.15.

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

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is 30.15%.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LECO. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,709,315 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,458,387,000 after purchasing an additional 15,062 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Lincoln Electric by 7.0% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,856,125 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $474,129,000 after acquiring an additional 121,914 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter worth approximately $336,627,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 687,841 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $149,578,000 after purchasing an additional 67,867 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 561,636 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $122,138,000 after acquiring an additional 6,280 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

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.