Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Price Target Raised to $235.00 at Barclays

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) had its target price boosted by Barclays from $220.00 to $235.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on LECO. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $233.60.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $216.81 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.87, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $194.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $195.93. Lincoln Electric has a fifty-two week low of $169.51 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.54. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.94 million. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.93% and a return on equity of 40.03%. Equities research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 8.72 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Mizuho Bank Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 255.1% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 174 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 54.1% in the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 299 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 308.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 335 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HM Payson & Co. purchased a new position in Lincoln Electric during the 3rd quarter worth $65,000. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.