Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) was downgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on LECO. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. KeyCorp upped their price target on Lincoln Electric from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Zacks Research lowered shares of Lincoln Electric from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Lincoln Electric in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Roth Capital set a $285.00 price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $247.00.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Shares of LECO stock opened at $226.89 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. Lincoln Electric has a 12-month low of $161.11 and a 12-month high of $249.19. The business’s 50 day moving average is $236.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $221.31. The company has a market capitalization of $12.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.24.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.39 by $0.08. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 39.79% and a net margin of 12.27%.The business had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.14 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Lincoln Electric will post 9.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.23, for a total value of $233,230.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 9,177 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,140,351.71. This trade represents a 9.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 12,387 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.36, for a total transaction of $3,014,500.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 55,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,595,549.76. The trade was a 18.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 16,387 shares of company stock valued at $3,974,270 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,156 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $240,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc. raised its position in Lincoln Electric by 2.8% during the third quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc. now owns 1,692 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $399,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 3.8% in the third quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 1,264 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $298,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Lincoln Electric by 2.8% in the second quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,752 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $363,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, YANKCOM Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. YANKCOM Partnership now owns 601 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.