Natixis Advisors LLC Purchases 25,578 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO - Free Report) by 174.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,242 shares of the industrial products company's stock after acquiring an additional 25,578 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.07% of Lincoln Electric worth $7,727,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 174.4% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 107 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 97.9% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 283 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 41.5% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 300 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 308.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 335 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the period. 79.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Lincoln Electric from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $220.00.

Lincoln Electric Trading Up 2.4 %

LECO traded up $5.01 on Friday, hitting $213.52. The company had a trading volume of 325,835 shares, compared to its average volume of 317,243. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $196.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $197.07. 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 Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.51 and a 12-month high of $261.13. The company has a market cap of $12.05 billion, a PE ratio of 25.48, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.14.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $983.76 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.07 million. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. 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 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.75 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.75 dividend. 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 1.41%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Lincoln Electric's dividend payout ratio is 33.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 11,178 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,966,880.88. The trade was a 8.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 2.63% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.