Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Receives “Market Perform” Rating from Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer restated their market perform rating on shares of Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) in a research note released on Monday, Benzinga reports.

LECO has been the subject of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $257.00 to $252.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Friday. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Lincoln Electric from $232.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $241.00 to $238.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Lincoln Electric in a research report on Monday, January 8th. They set an underweight rating and a $178.00 target price for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Lincoln Electric from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $221.86.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Shares of LECO stock opened at $225.13 on Monday. Lincoln Electric has a 52-week low of $164.00 and a 52-week high of $261.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 2.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $248.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $220.22.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $981.20 million during 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%. Lincoln Electric’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.13 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Lincoln Electric will post 9.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Sunday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.15%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Gabriel Bruno sold 12,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.95, for a total transaction of $3,178,719.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 22,402 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,554,575.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CFO Gabriel Bruno sold 12,820 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.95, for a total transaction of $3,178,719.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 22,402 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,554,575.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Geoffrey P. Allman sold 3,306 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.33, for a total value of $834,202.98. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9,150 shares in the company, valued at $2,308,819.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LECO. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Lincoln Electric during the 4th quarter valued at about $336,627,000. Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Lincoln Electric by 2,984.6% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 439,065 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $95,479,000 after purchasing an additional 424,831 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new stake in Lincoln Electric during the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,850,000. CM Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Lincoln Electric by 25,909.0% during the 4th quarter. CM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 178,942 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $39,040,000 after purchasing an additional 178,254 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Lincoln Electric by 19.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,049,854 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $190,853,000 after purchasing an additional 174,278 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

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.