Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Short Interest Down 5.0% in December

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 883,000 shares, a decline of 5.0% from the December 15th total of 929,600 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 285,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.1 days. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LECO. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 525,647 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $99,155,000 after acquiring an additional 38,206 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Lincoln Electric in the second quarter valued at about $3,042,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its position in Lincoln Electric by 37.4% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 6,278 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,709 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 2nd quarter worth about $4,462,000. Finally, Bridges Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $834,000. 79.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $195.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Lincoln Electric from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Lincoln Electric currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $230.75.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

LECO opened at $194.32 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.19, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $200.03 and a 200-day moving average of $196.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. Lincoln Electric has a 12-month low of $169.51 and a 12-month high of $261.13.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $983.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.07 million. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.40 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Lincoln Electric will post 8.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.