Eagle Asset Management Inc. Sells 28,511 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 5.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 472,963 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 28,511 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $90,818,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,644 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $316,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,646 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $316,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 1,303 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $250,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 174.4% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 107 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust grew 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 valued at $454,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the period. 79.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on LECO shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective 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. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $220.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the firm’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,966,880.88. This trade represents a 8.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

LECO stock opened at $208.51 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.85. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $169.51 and a 52 week high of $261.13. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $196.81 and its 200 day moving average is $197.07. The firm has a market cap of $11.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.14.

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

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.89%.

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.