Steven B. Hedlund Sells 21,054 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Stock

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total value of $4,536,505.38. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of Lincoln Electric stock traded down $4.37 on Friday, reaching $207.27. 301,101 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 285,477. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $194.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $196.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.51 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13.

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

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.45%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LECO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com upgraded Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $233.60.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 308.5% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 335 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $625,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 1,388 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust lifted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 2,366 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 18,413.8% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 258,267 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $49,592,000 after acquiring an additional 256,872 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

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.