Ritholtz Wealth Management Sells 91 Shares of Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO)

Ritholtz Wealth Management trimmed its holdings in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,212 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 91 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Lincoln Electric were worth $227,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its stake in Lincoln Electric by 48.0% in the second quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,747,083 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $518,210,000 after buying an additional 891,111 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,462,232 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $474,527,000 after acquiring an additional 280,466 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in 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 worth $231,345,000 after acquiring an additional 61,640 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Lincoln Electric by 81.9% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,097,965 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $210,831,000 after purchasing an additional 494,464 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Lincoln Electric by 7.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 525,647 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $99,155,000 after purchasing an additional 38,206 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LECO opened at $198.62 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $11.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.70, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.85. Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.51 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $199.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $196.24.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.09. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.03% and a net margin of 11.93%. The company had revenue of $983.76 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $988.07 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.40 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. will post 8.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.