Capital International Investors Sells 745,455 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Capital International Investors decreased its position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 66.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 380,731 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 745,455 shares during the quarter. Capital International Investors owned approximately 0.67% of Lincoln Electric worth $71,376,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter valued at about $307,344,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter worth approximately $110,062,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $92,117,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Lincoln Electric by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,735,527 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $325,359,000 after acquiring an additional 234,515 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in Lincoln Electric by 121.7% during the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 268,229 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,284,000 after purchasing an additional 147,239 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LECO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $178.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $187.00 to $179.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $219.00.

Insider Activity at Lincoln Electric

In other news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total transaction of $4,536,505.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,660 shares in the company, valued at $11,777,590.20. The trade was a 27.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 2.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Lincoln Electric Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of LECO opened at $177.38 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $193.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $196.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a current ratio of 1.87. The company has a market cap of $9.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $161.11 and a 52-week high of $242.65.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.54. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.94 million. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 11.63% and a return on equity of 40.19%. Analysts predict that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.81%.

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.