Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB Purchases New Position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 631 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $121,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LECO. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 48.0% in the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,747,083 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $518,210,000 after acquiring an additional 891,111 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Lincoln Electric by 12.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,462,232 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $474,527,000 after purchasing an additional 280,466 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 5.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,204,549 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $231,345,000 after purchasing an additional 61,640 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 81.9% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,097,965 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $210,831,000 after purchasing an additional 494,464 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 525,647 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $99,155,000 after buying an additional 38,206 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Shares of Lincoln Electric stock opened at $189.89 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $10.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.66, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $205.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $195.75. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.51 and a 1-year high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $983.76 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.07 million. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.75 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. 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 payout ratio is presently 35.80%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on LECO shares. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $195.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.17.

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.