State Street Corp Buys 280,466 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 12.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,462,232 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 280,466 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $474,527,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.0% during the third quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,644 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $316,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.2% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 1,646 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $316,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 4.8% in the third quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 1,303 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $250,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 3.1% in the third quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 2,366 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 41.5% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 300 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp raised their target price on Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $220.00.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Shares of LECO opened at $209.92 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.20. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $169.51 and a one year high of $261.13. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $203.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $195.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.84 billion, a PE ratio of 25.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.16.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.09. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.93% and a return on equity of 40.03%. The business had revenue of $983.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.07 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.40 earnings per share. Lincoln Electric’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. This is a positive change from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.80%.

About Lincoln Electric

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.