Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Shares Sold by Hancock Whitney Corp

Hancock Whitney Corp lessened its stake in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 0.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 93,529 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 219 shares during the period. Hancock Whitney Corp owned 0.16% of Lincoln Electric worth $17,643,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 115,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,023,000 after purchasing an additional 3,780 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,241 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $487,000 after buying an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter valued at $227,000. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 4,050 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $881,000 after buying an additional 1,077 shares in the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Lincoln Electric

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total value of $193,556.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,178 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,966,880.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on LECO. KeyCorp dropped their price target on Lincoln Electric from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Loop Capital cut their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $209.00 to $213.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $218.29.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 1.3 %

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $185.45 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $10.55 billion, a PE ratio of 19.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.14. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.00 and a fifty-two week 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 50-day moving average is $192.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $211.04.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 42.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 30.15%.

Lincoln Electric 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.