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

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th.

Lincoln Electric has increased its dividend by an average of 9.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 29 consecutive years. Lincoln Electric has a dividend payout ratio of 27.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of LECO opened at $238.36 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $248.62 and a two-hundred day moving average of $217.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.24. 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. Lincoln Electric has a fifty-two week low of $155.21 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Lincoln Electric

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Geoffrey P. Allman sold 3,306 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.33, for a total value of $834,202.98. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,308,819.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, SVP Geoffrey P. Allman sold 3,306 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.33, for a total value of $834,202.98. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9,150 shares in the company, valued at $2,308,819.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Gabriel Bruno sold 12,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lincoln Electric

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 2,027 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $279,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in Lincoln Electric by 3.9% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 19,635 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,706,000 after purchasing an additional 743 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in Lincoln Electric in the first quarter worth about $591,000. Panagora Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Lincoln Electric in the first quarter valued at about $210,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Lincoln Electric by 0.7% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,200,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $716,620,000 after buying an additional 38,059 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on LECO shares. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $239.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Lincoln Electric in a report on Monday, January 8th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $178.00 price objective for the company. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $232.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on 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 issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.