Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.75

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 17th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.75 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This is an increase from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71.

Lincoln Electric has increased its dividend payment by an average of 9.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 29 consecutive years. Lincoln Electric has a payout ratio of 30.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Lincoln Electric to earn $9.62 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 29.5%.

Lincoln Electric Stock Performance

LECO opened at $203.10 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $189.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $202.54. Lincoln Electric has a 52-week low of $164.00 and a 52-week high of $261.13. The company has a market cap of $11.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.56, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a quick ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.04. Lincoln Electric had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 42.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.44 EPS. Lincoln Electric’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric will post 8.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on LECO. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. 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 reduced their target price 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 given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $221.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total transaction of $193,556.00. Following the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

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.