Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Given New $230.00 Price Target at KeyCorp

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) had its price target raised by KeyCorp from $210.00 to $230.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

LECO has been the topic of several other reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $220.00.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Lincoln Electric stock opened at $206.10 on Thursday. Lincoln Electric has a 12-month low of $169.51 and a 12-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 $11.63 billion, a PE ratio of 24.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a 50-day moving average of $194.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $197.19.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $983.76 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.07 million. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.93% and a return on equity of 40.03%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.40 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric will post 8.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lincoln Electric

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total value of $193,556.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 11,178 shares in the company, valued at $1,966,880.88. This trade represents a 8.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 2.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LECO. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 62.7% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 65,079 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $16,442,000 after acquiring an additional 25,082 shares during the period. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 21.1% in the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 45,409 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,593,000 after acquiring an additional 7,922 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,709,315 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,458,387,000 after acquiring an additional 15,062 shares during the period. Councilmark Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 1st quarter valued at $1,943,000. Finally, Diversified Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,125,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.