ProShare Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. $LECO

ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 17.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 183,143 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 26,885 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC owned about 0.33% of Lincoln Electric worth $37,969,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 1.7% in the first quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT now owns 3,208 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $607,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Lincoln Electric by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,354 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $695,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,101 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $397,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Advisor OS LLC lifted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Advisor OS LLC now owns 1,240 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $235,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Finally, Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 1.2% during the first quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 7,861 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,487,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of LECO stock opened at $227.42 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $236.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $221.60. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $161.11 and a 1-year high of $249.19. The company has a market cap of $12.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.05 billion. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 39.79% and a net margin of 12.27%.The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.14 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be given a $0.79 dividend. This represents a $3.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. This is an increase from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is 33.83%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Lincoln Electric from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Zacks Research downgraded Lincoln Electric from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $235.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $247.00.

Insider Activity at Lincoln Electric

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.23, for a total transaction of $233,230.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 9,177 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,140,351.71. This represents a 9.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 12,387 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.36, for a total transaction of $3,014,500.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 55,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,595,549.76. This represents a 18.15% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.