First Trust Advisors LP Grows Stake in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 11.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 726,112 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 75,651 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned 1.29% of Lincoln Electric worth $136,124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $307,344,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the 4th quarter valued at $110,062,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the 4th quarter worth $92,117,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,735,527 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $325,359,000 after purchasing an additional 234,515 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 121.7% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 268,229 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,284,000 after purchasing an additional 147,239 shares in the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lincoln Electric

In other news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Lincoln Electric stock opened at $177.38 on Friday. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $161.11 and a 1-year high of $242.65. The company’s 50-day moving average is $193.18 and its 200 day moving average is $196.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 1.25.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $995.94 million. Research analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is 36.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on LECO. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $178.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Barclays increased their target price on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $187.00 to $179.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $219.00.

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.