River & Mercantile Asset Management LLP Acquires Shares of 5,500 Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

River & Mercantile Asset Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO – Get Rating) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 5,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $691,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 1.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,954,544 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $748,605,000 after purchasing an additional 63,007 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.7% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,200,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $716,620,000 after purchasing an additional 38,059 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 2.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,958,667 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $373,594,000 after acquiring an additional 59,991 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 4.0% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,844,640 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $231,908,000 after acquiring an additional 70,254 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 1.4% in the third quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 765,281 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,212,000 after acquiring an additional 10,194 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $167.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 26th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $174.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $149.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $149.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 20th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on Lincoln Electric in a report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $164.25.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $162.79 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $165.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $148.39. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $118.17 and a 52-week high of $176.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.37 billion, a PE ratio of 20.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.14.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 21st. The industrial products company reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.04. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 52.02% and a net margin of 12.56%. The business had revenue of $930.93 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $924.20 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.61 earnings per share. Lincoln Electric’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.66 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 31st will be paid a $0.64 dividend. This represents a $2.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 30th. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.80%.

Lincoln Electric Profile

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Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc engages in the manufacture of arc welding equipment, consumable welding products and other welding and cutting products. Its welding products include arc welding power sources, wire feeding systems, robotic welding packages, fume extraction equipment, consumable electrodes and fluxes.