Greenleaf Trust Buys 71 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Greenleaf Trust boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 3.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,366 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 71 shares during the quarter. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $454,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 9.1% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 1,388 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $266,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Lincoln Electric by 21.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,257 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $625,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares in the last quarter. Sharkey Howes & Javer purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter worth $1,712,000. Vest Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 38.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 8,157 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,566,000 after buying an additional 2,244 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 308.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 335 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 253 shares during the period. 79.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $221.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total value of $193,556.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 11,178 shares in the company, valued at $1,966,880.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LECO opened at $193.71 on Friday. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.63 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13. The company has a market cap of $10.98 billion, a PE ratio of 21.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 2.06. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $189.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $200.71.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 42.24% and a net margin of 12.48%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.44 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is an increase from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 32.16%.

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.