New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Takes $2.33 Million Position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 12,407 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,326,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 255.1% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 174 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 105 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in Lincoln Electric by 37.5% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 4th quarter valued at about $76,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 28.7% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 431 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on LECO shares. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 24th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. KeyCorp raised their target price on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $233.60.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 2.3 %

LECO opened at $190.29 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $10.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.35, 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 quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.87. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $198.68 and its 200 day moving average is $197.71. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.51 and a fifty-two week high of $255.60.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Lincoln Electric’s payout ratio is currently 36.81%.

Insider Transactions at Lincoln Electric

In other Lincoln Electric news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total value of $4,536,505.38. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,777,590.20. The trade was a 27.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

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.