State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Trims Stake in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D cut its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 19,827 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 290 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $3,717,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of LECO. V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its position in Lincoln Electric by 54.1% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 299 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 308.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 335 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $63,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the period. HM Payson & Co. acquired a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $65,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 37.5% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 389 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 60.2% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 423 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LECO has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays raised their price target on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. KeyCorp increased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $233.60.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LECO opened at $215.90 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 1.25. The company has a market cap of $12.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.18. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $194.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $196.07. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $169.51 and a 1-year high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.54. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.63% and a return on equity of 40.19%. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $995.94 million. Analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.