Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Short Interest Update

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,070,000 shares, a decrease of 10.8% from the September 30th total of 1,200,000 shares. Approximately 2.0% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 278,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total value of $193,556.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,178 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,966,880.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.63% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Lincoln Electric by 7,184.9% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 30,961 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,964,000 after buying an additional 30,536 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 39.7% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 40,453 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $7,838,000 after acquiring an additional 11,490 shares in the last quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 25,047 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,810,000 after acquiring an additional 6,369 shares in the last quarter. Cambiar Investors LLC increased its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 0.5% in the third quarter. Cambiar Investors LLC now owns 61,653 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,839,000 after buying an additional 282 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Absher Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the third quarter valued at $24,604,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on LECO shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $221.67.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of LECO stock traded down $4.70 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $192.56. 624,204 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 319,071. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $189.79 and its 200-day moving average is $199.47. Lincoln Electric has a fifty-two week low of $169.51 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13. The company has a market cap of $10.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 2.06, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.04. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 42.24% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.44 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Lincoln Electric will post 8.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. This is a boost from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is presently 33.98%.

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.