Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Price Target Lowered to $212.00 at Robert W. Baird

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) had its target price decreased by Robert W. Baird from $242.00 to $212.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the industrial products company’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 15.53% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $187.00 to $179.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $178.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $216.00.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Shares of Lincoln Electric stock opened at $183.50 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $10.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.87. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $187.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $196.04. Lincoln Electric has a one year low of $161.11 and a one year high of $238.47.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.22 by ($0.06). Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.19% and a net margin of 11.63%. The firm had revenue of $365.45 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $974.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.23 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Lincoln Electric will post 9.36 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Lincoln Electric

In related news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total value 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 $11,777,590.20. The trade was a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Lincoln Electric in the third quarter valued at about $499,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter valued at about $121,000. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 129,959 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $24,955,000 after buying an additional 836 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 2.9% in the third quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 4,352 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $833,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 12.7% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,312 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $246,000 after purchasing an additional 148 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.