Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) Announces Earnings Results

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The industrial products company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.05 by $0.09, Briefing.com reports. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 42.24% and a net margin of 12.48%. The company had revenue of $983.76 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $988.07 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.40 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

LECO opened at $201.75 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $189.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $199.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.43 billion, a PE ratio of 22.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.14. Lincoln Electric has a 52 week low of $169.51 and a 52 week high of $261.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 2.06.

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 is a positive change from Lincoln Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.16%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on LECO. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $184.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lincoln Electric has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $221.67.

Insider Activity

In other Lincoln Electric news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,966,880.88. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.