CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC Sells 310 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lessened its position in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 36.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 534 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 310 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $99,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,601,734 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,050,157,000 after purchasing an additional 18,805 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 12.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,462,232 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $474,527,000 after buying an additional 280,466 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Lincoln Electric by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,735,527 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $325,359,000 after buying an additional 234,515 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Lincoln Electric during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $307,344,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 5.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,204,549 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $231,345,000 after acquiring an additional 61,640 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LECO. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.60.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 1.9 %

NASDAQ:LECO opened at $168.72 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.70, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 1.25. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $161.11 and a one year high of $250.17. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $196.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $197.88.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.54. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $995.94 million. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.19% and a net margin of 11.63%. As a group, analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 9.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lincoln Electric Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. Lincoln Electric’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Lincoln Electric news, CEO Steven B. Hedlund sold 21,054 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total value of $4,536,505.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,777,590.20. The trade was a 27.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Lincoln Electric 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.