Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc. (LECO)

I work for LECO. The company is strong in other parts of the world. First time in our history we my support our workers in USA. I am happy to pay my debts back, we are trained well.. We will be the world leader of machinery in the 21st century.

Revenue is about at the 2006 level. With the commercial market not expected to recovery soon, revenue will be flat to down.

Showed up on a screen for solid 5 year growth with low debt, cash on hand and still at attractive P/E ratios.

Leader in its field, strong financials, crucial to construction = ride the recovery = Hold

MDP

infrastructure pick, attractive PE, low debt, dec. div

Demand for quality products like these will remain steady and Lincoln is in a strong position to maintain its efficiency and earnings. Further, with the economy being what it is, a healthy company has an advantage over competitors just based on its health and the lesser leverage it will require. It may even be slightly undervalued, but time will tell. I would still expect it to outperform the S&P though.

infrastructure can never disappear. it will always have to be rebuilt or repaired. given the shape us bridges alone are in these days, lincoln electric should be setting up a phone bank right now to field the orders. without roads you shut down some very big guys, ie. fed ex, ups, postal service... those big guys impact other big guys. apple can't ship computers by air any more than whirlpool can refrigerators! and what good are roads if you can't "bridge" them? lincoln is of prime ability for this massive restructuring by both capacity and distribution. and they still have a stronghold in the arc welding lesser market. corporate machinery is always in need of repair.

gtr

Should perform good during a recovery and survive as well during a reversal to the downward side!

Motlly Outrag Cheap Stock

Intrinsic value of $83.26

Founded 1895 by John C. Lincoln and today an industry leader in welding equipment. The larger competitor Illinois Tool Works is also a great company, but we prefer Lincoln Electric because of their slightly better fundamentals.

RCJ

Second Favorite Pick!

Sells welding equipment and related. Well-run, sales people love to work there, insider buying.

small cap tool works, will outperform when credit unfreezes

The stock was overly punished, going down 30% in 2 weeks. LECO has low debt, steady increases in sales and EPS. It now sells at 11 times trailing earnings.

LECO is a dominant brand in a sector in great demand (welding and cutting tools) in emerging economies as well as in the US market. Demand is driven by construction, renovation, manufacturing, natural disasters, etc.

It is just a very solid company with overseas ties

I suspect LECO could be left behind in a bull market rebound, but I don't expect much of a bull run given the state of the financial markets.

Ideally, this is a stock you might pick up just as conditions begin to worsen in the markets, because it does so well under all conditions and it ends up looking particularly stellar in bad conditions.

So I would not go with LECO if I thought the market was about to turn around. A whole bunch of paper wealth is evaporating, and playas are covering their behinds in a mad scramble to survive, so there ain't much capital left to plow into equities, and thus lift the markets.

On the other hand, there is a big pile of pedestrians' cash waiting on the sidelines, burning a hole in people's pockets. Where is that cash going to go? I suspect it will probably stay in CD's and money market funds until baby boomers retire in big numbers, and when that happens nothing will pull the market up.

On the other hand, those equities with a proven record of holding up against fiscal scrutiny, and Lincoln is almost beyond question as a solid business in this regard, will continue to get investors interested. So, my bet is that Lincoln will beat the SP500, as a less bad pick than the rest.

Sadly, due to its size, LECO has not been able to keep up with the bigger companies in terms of growth, but it has kept to its knitting and its balance sheet looks like the Rock of Gibraltar.