4,421 Shares in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Purchased by Bridges Investment Management Inc.

Bridges Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 4,421 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $834,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LECO. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the second quarter valued at approximately $4,462,000. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 6,056 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,142,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 37.4% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 6,278 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,181,000 after acquiring an additional 1,709 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 8.7% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 19,608 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,699,000 after purchasing an additional 1,569 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT lifted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 2.3% during the second quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 58,796 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,091,000 after purchasing an additional 1,315 shares in the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Lincoln Electric

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total transaction of $193,556.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 11,178 shares in the company, valued at $1,966,880.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LECO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. 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. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Lincoln Electric from $209.00 to $213.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $218.29.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Shares of LECO opened at $185.45 on Friday. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $164.00 and a 1 year high of $261.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 2.06 and a quick ratio of 1.31. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $192.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $211.04. The firm has a market cap of $10.55 billion, a PE ratio of 19.69, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.14.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 42.24% and a net margin of 12.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.44 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.97 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.