Wall Street Zen Upgrades Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) to Strong-Buy

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECOGet Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $236.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Roth Capital assumed coverage on shares of Lincoln Electric in a report on Friday, September 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $279.00 price target for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $239.33.

Read Our Latest Analysis on LECO

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of NASDAQ LECO opened at $227.93 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $239.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $213.17. The firm has a market cap of $12.58 billion, a PE ratio of 25.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.20. Lincoln Electric has a 1 year low of $161.11 and a 1 year high of $249.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECOGet Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by $0.28. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 39.79%. The business had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.34 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 9.36 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Lincoln Electric

In other news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.23, for a total transaction of $233,230.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 9,177 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,140,351.71. This trade represents a 9.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Gabriel Bruno sold 7,305 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.42, for a total transaction of $1,770,878.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 29,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,254,903.34. This trade represents a 19.62% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 23,692 shares of company stock worth $5,745,148. Corporate insiders own 2.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Trust Point Inc. raised its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 14.3% during the third quarter. Trust Point Inc. now owns 2,782 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $656,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 13.0% during the third quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 86,305 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $20,353,000 after buying an additional 9,897 shares during the last quarter. Riversedge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 6.9% during the third quarter. Riversedge Advisors LLC now owns 1,978 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $466,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Northside Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the third quarter valued at about $354,000. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the third quarter valued at about $1,020,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

About Lincoln Electric

(Get Free Report)

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.

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Analyst Recommendations for Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO)

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