Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Holdings Trimmed by Marietta Investment Partners LLC

Marietta Investment Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 7,296 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. Marietta Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $1,368,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 4th quarter valued at $92,117,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,462,232 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $474,527,000 after acquiring an additional 280,466 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 121.7% during the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 268,229 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,284,000 after acquiring an additional 147,239 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,163,119 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $218,050,000 after acquiring an additional 65,154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,204,549 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $231,345,000 after acquiring an additional 61,640 shares in the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of 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 given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $233.60.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 1.1 %

Lincoln Electric stock opened at $192.02 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $10.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 1.25. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.51 and a fifty-two week high of $258.99. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $198.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $196.92.

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

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 36.81%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total transaction of $4,536,505.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 54,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,777,590.20. This represents a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.63% 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.