StockNews.com Downgrades Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) to Hold

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning.

Several other brokerages have also recently 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 research report on Friday, May 24th. Loop Capital dropped their price target on Lincoln Electric from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Lincoln Electric from $241.00 to $238.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Lincoln Electric from $252.00 to $236.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a market perform rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $225.29.

Lincoln Electric Stock Up 3.2 %

LECO opened at $194.16 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $200.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $223.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 2.24. Lincoln Electric has a one year low of $164.00 and a one year high of $261.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.15.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The industrial products company reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.15 by $0.08. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 43.81% and a net margin of 13.23%. The business had revenue of $981.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric will post 9.04 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.15%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LECO. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 194.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 106 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 174.4% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 107 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 81.1% during the 3rd quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in 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.