World Investment Advisors LLC Invests $499,000 in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 2,598 shares of the industrial products company's stock, valued at approximately $499,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LECO. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 48.0% during the second quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,747,083 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $518,210,000 after purchasing an additional 891,111 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in 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 valued at $210,831,000 after purchasing an additional 494,464 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 12.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,462,232 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $474,527,000 after purchasing an additional 280,466 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in 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 valued at $49,592,000 after purchasing an additional 256,872 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Absher Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Lincoln Electric during the third quarter valued at approximately $24,604,000. 79.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 3.8 %

Lincoln Electric stock traded down $7.57 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $191.58. The company had a trading volume of 288,250 shares, compared to its average volume of 313,741. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The firm's fifty day moving average is $205.20 and its 200-day moving average is $195.79. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.51 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 analyst estimates of $988.07 million. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.93% and a return on equity of 40.03%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.40 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Lincoln Electric's previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Lincoln Electric's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.