Short Interest in Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) Grows By 14.3%

by · The Markets Daily

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO – Get Free Report) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,200,000 shares, an increase of 14.3% from the September 15th total of 1,050,000 shares. Approximately 2.2% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 295,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.1 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on LECO shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Lincoln Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $209.00 to $213.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $226.33.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Lincoln Electric

Insider Activity at Lincoln Electric

In related news, SVP Michael J. Whitehead sold 1,100 shares of Lincoln Electric stock in a transaction on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.96, for a total value of $193,556.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 11,178 shares in the company, valued at $1,966,880.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lincoln Electric

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LECO. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 48.0% during the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,747,083 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $518,210,000 after purchasing an additional 891,111 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 7.0% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,856,125 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $474,129,000 after purchasing an additional 121,914 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in shares of Lincoln Electric by 204.0% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 138,331 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,095,000 after purchasing an additional 92,820 shares during the last quarter. Distillate Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 2nd quarter valued at about $13,617,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Lincoln Electric during the 2nd quarter valued at about $12,627,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.61% of the company’s stock.

Lincoln Electric Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LECO opened at $192.20 on Wednesday. Lincoln Electric has a fifty-two week low of $164.00 and a fifty-two week high of $261.13. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $188.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $202.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 2.06. The firm has a market cap of $10.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.14.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.04. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 42.24% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.44 EPS. Lincoln Electric’s revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Lincoln Electric will post 8.95 earnings per share for the current year.

About Lincoln Electric

(Get Free Report)

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.

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