Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.75

Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LECO) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.75 per share by the industrial products company on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

Lincoln Electric has raised its dividend by an average of 11.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 30 consecutive years. Lincoln Electric has a payout ratio of 30.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Lincoln Electric to earn $10.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.8%.

Lincoln Electric Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LECO traded down $4.26 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $211.64. The company had a trading volume of 203,442 shares, compared to its average volume of 285,001. Lincoln Electric has a 12 month low of $169.51 and a 12 month high of $261.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.87, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market cap of $11.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.97, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $194.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $196.07.

Lincoln Electric (NASDAQ:LECO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The industrial products company reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.54. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $995.94 million. Lincoln Electric had a return on equity of 40.19% and a net margin of 11.63%. On average, analysts predict that Lincoln Electric will post 9.32 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Lincoln Electric from $230.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Lincoln Electric from $216.00 to $211.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com raised Lincoln Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Lincoln Electric from $220.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with 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 an average price target of $233.60.

Lincoln Electric Company 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.