Headlands Technologies LLC Acquires 888 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Headlands Technologies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 162.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,435 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 888 shares during the quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $269,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of LECO. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 21,199 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,974,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,737 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $326,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 806 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $151,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,634 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,813,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,644 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $871,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on LECO shares. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.60.

Insider Activity at Lincoln Electric

In other news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 54,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,777,590.20. The trade was a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

Shares of Lincoln Electric stock opened at $172.02 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $197.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $197.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $168.29 and a fifty-two week high of $250.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 1.25.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released 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. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.19% and a net margin of 11.63%. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $995.94 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.