Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (LECO) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 31st

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.75 per share by the industrial products company on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

Lincoln Electric has raised its dividend by an average of 11.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 30 years. Lincoln Electric has a dividend payout ratio of 29.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Lincoln Electric to earn $10.08 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.8%.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

LECO stock opened at $207.27 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $194.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $196.30. Lincoln Electric has a twelve month low of $169.51 and a twelve month high of $261.13. The firm has a market cap of $11.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.43, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.54. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.19% and a net margin of 11.63%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $995.94 million. Analysts predict that Lincoln Electric will post 9.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on LECO. StockNews.com raised Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Barclays raised their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Lincoln Electric news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total value of $4,536,505.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,777,590.20. This trade represents a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

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.