State of Michigan Retirement System Acquires 400 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 2.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,089 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $3,599,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the first quarter valued at $26,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 194.4% in the first quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 106 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 81.1% in the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 79.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LECO has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Loop Capital lowered 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. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Lincoln Electric from $241.00 to $238.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 26th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Lincoln Electric from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 24th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $252.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $225.29.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Lincoln Electric stock opened at $185.39 on Wednesday. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.00 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $206.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $225.02. The stock has a market cap of $10.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 2.24.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.15 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $981.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 43.81% and a net margin of 13.23%. The company’s revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.13 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 30th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.