Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Short Interest Down 5.0% in December

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) was the target of a large drop in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 883,000 shares, a drop of 5.0% from the December 15th total of 929,600 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 285,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.1 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 891,111 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 12.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,462,232 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $474,527,000 after purchasing an additional 280,466 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,204,549 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $231,345,000 after purchasing an additional 61,640 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 81.9% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,097,965 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $210,831,000 after buying an additional 494,464 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.8% during the second 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. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

NASDAQ LECO opened at $194.32 on Friday. Lincoln Electric has a 12-month low of $169.51 and a 12-month high of $261.13. The company’s 50 day moving average is $200.51 and its 200-day moving average is $195.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market cap of $10.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.18.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $983.76 million during 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%. Lincoln Electric’s revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.40 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Lincoln Electric will post 8.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on LECO. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $195.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $230.75.

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.