New York State Common Retirement Fund Trims Stake in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund trimmed its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO - Free Report) by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 109,443 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 16,400 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.19% of Lincoln Electric worth $21,015,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Lincoln Electric by 0.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,709,315 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,458,387,000 after purchasing an additional 15,062 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 48.0% during 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 during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,856,125 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $474,129,000 after acquiring an additional 121,914 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake 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 worth $99,155,000 after acquiring an additional 38,206 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 18,413.8% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 258,267 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $49,592,000 after purchasing an additional 256,872 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LECO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Lincoln Electric from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $221.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total transaction of $193,556.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 11,178 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,966,880.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

LECO traded up $4.99 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $203.79. The company's stock had a trading volume of 258,283 shares, compared to its average volume of 319,096. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.14. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.51 and a twelve month high of $261.13. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $189.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $198.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) 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 net margin of 11.93% and a return on equity of 40.03%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.40 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.78 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. Investors 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 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 1.47%. Lincoln Electric's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.89%.

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.