Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC Makes New $320,000 Investment in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 1,707 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $320,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LECO. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter valued at $385,000. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,473 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $283,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,646 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $316,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 174.4% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 40,242 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $7,727,000 after purchasing an additional 25,578 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter valued at $23,233,000. 79.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $233.60.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

LECO opened at $190.98 on Tuesday. 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 company’s fifty day moving average price is $197.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $196.99. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.51 and a 1-year high of $261.13. The company has a market cap of $10.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.43, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released 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 net margin of 11.63% and a return on equity of 40.19%. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $995.94 million. On average, analysts expect that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total value of $4,536,505.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,660 shares in the company, valued at $11,777,590.20. This represents a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.63% 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.