Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Upgraded to "Buy" by StockNews.com

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report issued on Friday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on LECO. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective 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 lifted their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $221.67.

Lincoln Electric Stock Up 0.0 %

NASDAQ LECO traded up $0.02 on Friday, hitting $193.71. The stock had a trading volume of 167,746 shares, compared to its average volume of 317,665. Lincoln Electric has a 52-week low of $164.63 and a 52-week high of $261.13. The business's fifty day moving average price is $189.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $200.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 2.06 and a quick ratio of 1.31. The stock has a market cap of $10.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.14.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.04. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 42.24%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.44 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric will post 8.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Lincoln Electric

In other news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total transaction of $193,556.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 11,178 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,966,880.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew 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 in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Lincoln Electric by 18,413.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 256,872 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in Lincoln Electric by 7.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in Lincoln Electric by 204.0% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 138,331 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $26,095,000 after acquiring an additional 92,820 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Distillate Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Lincoln Electric during the 2nd quarter valued at about $13,617,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company's stock.

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.

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