Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Short Interest Down 5.0% in December

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 883,000 shares, a decline of 5.0% from the December 15th total of 929,600 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 285,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.1 days. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LECO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $195.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. StockNews.com raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $230.75.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 97.9% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 283 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its stake in Lincoln Electric by 41.5% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 300 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in Lincoln Electric by 308.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 335 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. HM Payson & Co. purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the third quarter worth about $65,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 60.2% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 423 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $81,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

NASDAQ LECO opened at $194.32 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $200.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $196.06. Lincoln Electric has a twelve month low of $169.51 and a twelve month high of $261.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market cap of $10.96 billion, a PE ratio of 23.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.18.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $983.76 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $988.07 million. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. Lincoln Electric’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.40 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric will post 8.74 earnings per share for the current year.

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.