Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.71

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.71 per share by the industrial products company on Monday, July 15th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th.

Lincoln Electric has increased its dividend by an average of 9.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 29 consecutive years. Lincoln Electric has a payout ratio of 27.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Lincoln Electric to earn $10.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.6%.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Shares of Lincoln Electric stock opened at $238.36 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $248.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $217.94. The company has a market capitalization of $13.55 billion, a PE ratio of 25.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 2.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. Lincoln Electric has a 52 week low of $155.21 and a 52 week high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.26. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 45.09% and a net margin of 13.01%. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.94 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Lincoln Electric will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LECO. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC boosted its position in Lincoln Electric by 5.8% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 2,027 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $279,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in Lincoln Electric by 3.9% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 19,635 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,706,000 after purchasing an additional 743 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new position in Lincoln Electric during the first quarter worth approximately $591,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Lincoln Electric during the first quarter worth approximately $210,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in Lincoln Electric by 0.7% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,200,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $716,620,000 after purchasing an additional 38,059 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on LECO. Morgan Stanley began coverage on Lincoln Electric in a research report on Monday, January 8th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $178.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Lincoln Electric from $239.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group upped 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. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $232.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.50.

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.