Morgan Stanley Has Lowered Expectations for Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Stock Price

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) had its price objective lowered by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $187.00 to $179.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underweight” rating on the industrial products company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 0.91% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on LECO. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $178.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. KeyCorp raised their price target on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $219.00.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Shares of LECO opened at $177.38 on Wednesday. Lincoln Electric has a 12 month low of $161.11 and a 12 month high of $242.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $193.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $196.87. The company has a market cap of $9.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.94 million. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.63% and a return on equity of 40.19%. On average, research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 9.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lincoln Electric news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,777,590.20. The trade was a 27.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.41% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Lincoln Electric by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,601,734 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,050,157,000 after purchasing an additional 18,805 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 15.6% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,735,527 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $325,359,000 after purchasing an additional 234,515 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 4th quarter valued at about $307,344,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,235,582 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $231,691,000 after buying an additional 31,033 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,163,119 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $218,050,000 after buying an additional 65,154 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.