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

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday, September 12th, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on LECO. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Lincoln Electric from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $257.00 to $283.00 in a research note on Monday, August 10th. DA Davidson assumed coverage on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research report on Monday, August 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $340.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $307.22.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Lincoln Electric stock traded up $2.36 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $259.56. 120,868 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 387,755. The stock has a market cap of $14.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.98. Lincoln Electric has a 52-week low of $216.22 and a 52-week high of $310.00. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $268.47 and its 200 day moving average is $263.38.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $1.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.17 billion. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 12.35% and a return on equity of 39.23%. The business’s revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.60 EPS. Analysts predict that Lincoln Electric will post 11.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 40.5% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 18,561,962 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $656,165,000 after buying an additional 5,354,141 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter worth $415,155,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 23.2% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 64,257 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $16,005,000 after buying an additional 12,093 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,306,641 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $313,175,000 after buying an additional 6,070 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SummitTX Capital L.P. increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 37.0% in the first quarter. SummitTX Capital L.P. now owns 18,192 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,531,000 after buying an additional 4,916 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

About Lincoln Electric

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: LECO) is a Cleveland, Ohio-based manufacturer of welding, cutting and automation products. Founded in 1895 by John C. Lincoln, the company serves industrial, construction, energy, transportation and other end markets that use fabrication and joining technologies.

Its product portfolio includes arc-welding machines, welding consumables such as electrodes and wire, plasma and oxyfuel cutting equipment, robotic welding systems, and related automation solutions.