Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Reduces Position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lowered its holdings in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 4.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 21,262 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 936 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $4,083,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 48.0% in the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,747,083 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $518,210,000 after purchasing an additional 891,111 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 12.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,462,232 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $474,527,000 after acquiring an additional 280,466 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 81.9% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,097,965 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $210,831,000 after acquiring an additional 494,464 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 7.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 525,647 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $99,155,000 after acquiring an additional 38,206 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 18,413.8% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 258,267 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $49,592,000 after purchasing an additional 256,872 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LECO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Lincoln Electric from $195.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $225.17.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 1.8 %

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $203.80 on Monday. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.51 and a 12-month high of $261.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $204.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $195.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.16.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $983.76 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.07 million. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.93% and a return on equity of 40.03%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.75 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. This is a positive change from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.80%.

Lincoln Electric Company Profile

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.