Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Raised to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

LECO has been the topic of a number of other research reports. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $245.00 to $225.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $178.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays increased their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $179.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $242.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $206.40.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 1.5%

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $191.52 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $10.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $185.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $195.08. Lincoln Electric has a 1 year low of $161.11 and a 1 year high of $222.52. 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 (NASDAQ:LECO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by ($0.06). Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.19% and a net margin of 11.63%. The business had revenue of $365.45 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $974.39 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.23 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Lincoln Electric will post 9.36 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is 36.99%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LECO. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 21,199 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,974,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,737 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $326,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 1.7% during the first quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC UT now owns 3,208 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $607,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 806 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $151,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Finally, YANKCOM Partnership grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 12.2% during the first quarter. YANKCOM Partnership now owns 553 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $105,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

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.