Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc cut its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 11.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 103,867 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 13,666 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $19,472,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LECO. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $307,344,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the 4th quarter valued at $92,117,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,735,527 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $325,359,000 after acquiring an additional 234,515 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its position in Lincoln Electric by 121.7% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 268,229 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $50,284,000 after acquiring an additional 147,239 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Lincoln Electric by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,163,119 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $218,050,000 after acquiring an additional 65,154 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on LECO shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $178.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Barclays boosted their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.00.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ LECO opened at $179.95 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The company has a 50-day moving average of $194.35 and a 200 day moving average of $197.22. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $161.11 and a 12-month high of $243.04. The stock has a market cap of $10.08 billion, a PE ratio of 22.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.54. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.19% and a net margin of 11.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.94 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.81%.

Insider Activity

In other Lincoln Electric news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total transaction of $4,536,505.38. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,777,590.20. The trade was a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

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.