Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Lincoln Electric Holdings (Nasdaq: LECO) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday, Feb. 17. Lincoln Electric Holdings is a manufacturer and reseller of welding and cutting products. Those welding products include arc welding power sources, wire feeding systems, robotic welding packages, fume extraction equipment, consumable electrodes, and fluxes.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back Lincoln Electric Holdings as a buy. But with 60% of analysts rating it a buy, Lincoln Electric Holdings is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest three competitors, which average 61.5% buys. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $698.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 23.8% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.64 per share. Estimates range from $0.62 to $0.67.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 100% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The greater community concurs with the All-Stars, as 98.1% give it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Lincoln Electric Holdings, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 95 posts in the past 30 days. Lincoln Electric Holdings has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Lincoln Electric Holdings' profit has risen year-over-year by an average of 78.6% over the past five quarters.

Now let's get some insight into how efficient management is at running the business. Margins are a representation of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Lincoln Electric Holdings has seen rising net margins year over year for the last four quarters. Net margin reflects what percentage of each dollar earned by the company becomes profit. Here are Lincoln Electric Holdings' reported margins for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

26.4%

28.0%

26.9%

26.2%

Operating Margin

10.7%

11.4%

9.9%

9.3%

Net Margin

7.9%

8.2%

7.8%

7.4%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.