Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Upgraded by StockNews.com to Buy Rating

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday.

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

Lincoln Electric Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ LECO traded up $6.42 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $219.94. 385,334 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 317,948. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $198.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $196.44. Lincoln Electric has a 12 month low of $169.51 and a 12 month high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $983.76 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.07 million. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.40 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric will post 8.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total transaction of $193,556.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,178 shares in the company, valued at $1,966,880.88. This represents a 8.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Diversified Trust Co acquired a new position in Lincoln Electric during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,125,000. BDF Gestion acquired a new position in Lincoln Electric during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,858,000. Bridges Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Lincoln Electric during the 2nd quarter valued at about $834,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Lincoln Electric during the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,042,000. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Lincoln Electric by 15.3% during the 3rd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 19,879 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,817,000 after buying an additional 2,642 shares in the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.