Skylands Capital LLC Reduces Holdings in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Skylands Capital LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,355 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 700 shares during the quarter. Skylands Capital LLC’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $3,628,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 54.1% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 299 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 308.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 335 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. HM Payson & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the third quarter worth about $65,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 37.5% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 389 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 60.2% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 423 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 159 shares in the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LECO. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five 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 target price of $233.60.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Lincoln Electric stock opened at $207.27 on Monday. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $169.51 and a 1 year high of $261.13. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $194.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $196.40. The company 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. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.87.

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

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.45%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lincoln Electric

In other Lincoln Electric 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,777,590.20. The trade was a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Lincoln Electric 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.