Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (LECO) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 31st

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.75 per share by the industrial products company on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st.

Lincoln Electric has raised its dividend by an average of 11.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 30 consecutive years. Lincoln Electric has a dividend payout ratio of 29.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Lincoln Electric to earn $10.08 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.8%.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 2.3 %

LECO opened at $190.29 on Friday. Lincoln Electric has a twelve month low of $169.51 and a twelve month high of $255.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $198.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $197.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.35, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.54. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $995.94 million. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.63% and a return on equity of 40.19%. Equities research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 9.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total value of $4,536,505.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 54,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,777,590.20. This represents a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays raised their target price on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.60.

About Lincoln Electric

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.