Ledyard National Bank Trims Position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Ledyard National Bank trimmed its position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 11.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,322 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 3,894 shares during the quarter. Ledyard National Bank’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $5,822,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of LECO. Sharkey Howes & Javer bought a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the third quarter worth $1,712,000. Vest Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 38.0% during the third quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 8,157 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,566,000 after purchasing an additional 2,244 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Lincoln Electric by 308.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 335 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its stake in Lincoln Electric by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 11,088 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,129,000 after buying an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO increased its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO now owns 14,830 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,848,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lincoln Electric

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total value of $193,556.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 11,178 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,966,880.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $221.67.

Lincoln Electric Stock Down 1.5 %

LECO stock opened at $200.01 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 2.06. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $189.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $201.54. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $164.00 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.30 by $0.04. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 42.24%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.44 earnings per share. Lincoln Electric’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. This is an increase from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.85%.

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.