JPMorgan Chase & Co. Sells 335,558 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut its position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO - Free Report) by 18.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,501,012 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 335,558 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 2.66% of Lincoln Electric worth $288,224,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of LECO. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 48.0% in the second quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,747,083 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $518,210,000 after purchasing an additional 891,111 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in 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 valued at $474,527,000 after buying an additional 280,466 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Lincoln Electric by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,204,549 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $231,345,000 after buying an additional 61,640 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 81.9% during 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 525,647 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $99,155,000 after acquiring an additional 38,206 shares during the period. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on LECO. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $195.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. StockNews.com upgraded Lincoln Electric from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $225.17.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

LECO traded down $1.62 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $188.24. 210,753 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 316,158. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $169.51 and a one year high of $261.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.16. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $204.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $195.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $983.76 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $988.07 million. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. The business's revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.74 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 given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Lincoln Electric's previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. Lincoln Electric's payout ratio is 35.80%.

Lincoln Electric 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.