Verition Fund Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Verition Fund Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 74.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,631 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 7,608 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $505,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LECO. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its position in Lincoln Electric by 48.0% during the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,747,083 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $518,210,000 after buying an additional 891,111 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 81.9% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,097,965 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $210,831,000 after buying an additional 494,464 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Lincoln Electric by 18,413.8% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 258,267 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $49,592,000 after purchasing an additional 256,872 shares in the last quarter. Absher Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Lincoln Electric during the third quarter valued at $24,604,000. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 3rd quarter valued at about $23,233,000. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on LECO. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $195.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. One 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $225.17.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $209.08 on Thursday. 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 12 month low of $169.51 and a 12 month high of $261.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.80 billion, a PE ratio of 24.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.16. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $204.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $195.70.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $983.76 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $988.07 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.40 earnings per share. Lincoln Electric’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.75 earnings per share 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 paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is an increase from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 35.80%.

Lincoln Electric Company 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.