Lincoln Electric (LECO) Competitors

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) and Ingersoll Rand (NYSE:IR) are both large-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, valuation and community ranking.

Do analysts prefer LECO or IR?

Lincoln Electric presently has a consensus target price of $229.50, suggesting a potential upside of 18.37%. Ingersoll Rand has a consensus target price of $105.92, suggesting a potential upside of 13.76%. Given Lincoln Electric's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Lincoln Electric is more favorable than Ingersoll Rand.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lincoln Electric	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.60
Ingersoll Rand	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.54

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of LECO or IR?

79.6% of Lincoln Electric shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.3% of Ingersoll Rand shares are held by institutional investors. 2.6% of Lincoln Electric shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Ingersoll Rand shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is LECO or IR more profitable?

Lincoln Electric has a net margin of 11.93% compared to Ingersoll Rand's net margin of 11.72%. Lincoln Electric's return on equity of 40.03% beat Ingersoll Rand's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lincoln Electric	11.93%	40.03%	15.24%
Ingersoll Rand	11.72%	13.01%	7.77%

Which has more volatility and risk, LECO or IR?

Lincoln Electric has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ingersoll Rand has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is LECO or IR a better dividend stock?

Lincoln Electric pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Ingersoll Rand pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. Lincoln Electric pays out 35.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ingersoll Rand pays out 3.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Lincoln Electric has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years. Lincoln Electric is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has better earnings & valuation, LECO or IR?

Ingersoll Rand has higher revenue and earnings than Lincoln Electric. Lincoln Electric is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ingersoll Rand, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lincoln Electric	$4.19B	2.61	$545.25M	$8.38	23.14
Ingersoll Rand	$6.88B	5.46	$778.70M	$2.05	45.42

Does the media refer more to LECO or IR?

In the previous week, Ingersoll Rand had 8 more articles in the media than Lincoln Electric. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Ingersoll Rand and 3 mentions for Lincoln Electric. Ingersoll Rand's average media sentiment score of 1.13 beat Lincoln Electric's score of 1.11 indicating that Ingersoll Rand is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Lincoln Electric	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Ingersoll Rand	8 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in LECO or IR?

Ingersoll Rand received 282 more outperform votes than Lincoln Electric when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.64% of users gave Ingersoll Rand an outperform vote while only 59.47% of users gave Lincoln Electric an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Lincoln Electric	Outperform Votes 449 59.47%	Underperform Votes 306 40.53%
Ingersoll Rand	Outperform Votes 731 61.64%	Underperform Votes 455 38.36%

Summary

Ingersoll Rand beats Lincoln Electric on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.