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

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 of this dividend is Friday, June 28th.

Lincoln Electric has increased its dividend by an average of 9.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 29 years. Lincoln Electric has a payout ratio of 27.0% indicating that 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 opened at $238.36 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 2.24. Lincoln Electric has a 52-week low of $155.21 and a 52-week high of $261.13. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $248.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $217.94. The firm has a market cap 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 (NASDAQ:LECO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The industrial products company reported $2.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.26. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 45.09% and a net margin of 13.01%. The company had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.94 earnings per share. Lincoln Electric’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lincoln Electric

In other Lincoln Electric news, CFO Gabriel Bruno sold 12,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.95, for a total value of $3,178,719.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 22,402 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,554,575.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Lincoln Electric news, CFO Gabriel Bruno sold 12,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.95, for a total value of $3,178,719.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 22,402 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,554,575.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Geoffrey P. Allman sold 3,306 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.33, for a total value of $834,202.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9,150 shares of the company’s stock, 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 Inflows and Outflows

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on LECO shares. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Lincoln Electric from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Lincoln Electric from $232.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Lincoln Electric in a report on Monday, January 8th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $178.00 price target for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Lincoln Electric from $239.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently 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.