Vanguard Group Inc. Cuts Position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Vanguard Group Inc. lessened its holdings in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 5,694,253 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 77,256 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 10.02% of Lincoln Electric worth $1,238,272,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of LECO. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter worth about $336,627,000. Eagle Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 2,984.6% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 439,065 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $95,479,000 after buying an additional 424,831 shares in the last quarter. CM Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 25,909.0% in the fourth quarter. CM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 178,942 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $39,040,000 after buying an additional 178,254 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 19.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,049,854 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $190,853,000 after buying an additional 174,278 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 411.9% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 191,740 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $34,856,000 after buying an additional 154,286 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Stock Up 0.8 %

LECO opened at $186.48 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $164.00 and a 1-year high of $261.13. The company has a market capitalization of $10.61 billion, a PE ratio of 19.80, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $214.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $225.95.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $2.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.08. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 13.23% and a return on equity of 43.81%. The business had revenue of $981.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.13 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.22 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 30th will be given a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.52%. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is presently 30.15%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on LECO shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $252.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 24th. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $241.00 to $238.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, 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 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 given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $225.29.

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.