Stifel Nicolaus Has Lowered Expectations for Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Stock Price

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) had its price target cut by Stifel Nicolaus from $216.00 to $211.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “hold” rating on the industrial products company’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price points to a potential upside of 7.05% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on LECO. StockNews.com upgraded Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. KeyCorp raised their target price on Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $229.50.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LECO traded down $1.52 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $197.11. 33,888 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 244,006. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $199.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $196.26. Lincoln Electric has a 12 month low of $169.51 and a 12 month high of $261.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.09. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. The company had revenue of $983.76 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.07 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.40 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 8.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Elios Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter valued at about $999,000. Vestcor Inc boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 85.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 8,180 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,571,000 after purchasing an additional 3,771 shares during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 237,935 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $45,688,000 after purchasing an additional 7,962 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,042,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter valued at about $499,000. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Company 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.