Bank of America Corp DE Trims Stock Holdings in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Bank of America Corp DE cut its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 30.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 87,562 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 39,098 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $16,415,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 431 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $83,000 after buying an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric in the fourth quarter worth about $496,000. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 5,262 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $986,000 after acquiring an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 358,331 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $67,176,000 after purchasing an additional 2,088 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 255.1% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 174 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. 79.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on LECO. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Lincoln Electric from $242.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays upped their price target on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Lincoln Electric from $179.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on Lincoln Electric from $245.00 to $225.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $178.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $216.17.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 0.2%

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $201.07 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.22 billion, a PE ratio of 24.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a 52-week low of $161.11 and a 52-week high of $229.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $185.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $195.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by ($0.06). Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.19% and a net margin of 11.63%. The company had revenue of $365.45 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $974.39 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.23 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 EPS for the current year.

Lincoln Electric Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 30th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.99%.

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.