Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.71 (NASDAQ:LECO)

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Sunday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.71 per share by the industrial products company on Monday, July 15th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th.

Lincoln Electric has raised its dividend payment by an average of 9.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 29 consecutive years. Lincoln Electric has a payout ratio of 27.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Lincoln Electric to earn $10.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.6%.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Shares of LECO stock opened at $238.36 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.55 billion, a PE ratio of 25.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $248.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $217.94. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. Lincoln Electric has a twelve month low of $155.21 and a twelve month high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $2.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.26. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 13.01% and a return on equity of 45.09%. The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.94 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Gabriel Bruno sold 12,820 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.95, for a total value of $3,178,719.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 22,402 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,554,575.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Gabriel Bruno sold 12,820 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.95, for a total value of $3,178,719.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 22,402 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,554,575.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Geoffrey P. Allman sold 3,306 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.33, for a total transaction of $834,202.98. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,308,819.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. IFP Advisors Inc raised its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 1,422.2% during the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 137 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 3rd quarter worth about $34,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. Money Concepts Capital Corp grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 68.0% in the 4th quarter. Money Concepts Capital Corp now owns 257 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $49,000. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on LECO. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Lincoln Electric in a research note on Monday, January 8th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $178.00 price objective on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $239.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $232.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.50.

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.