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Makes welding equipment and consumables (electrodes, wire) for industrial, construction and automotive customers.
Makes welding equipment and consumables (electrodes, wire) for industrial, construction and automotive customers.
Consumables like electrodes and wire are used up and reordered, so they follow factory activity and give steadier revenue than equipment, which is a larger, lumpier purchase. Sales go through industrial distributors and directly to big manufacturers. North America is the biggest market.
Moat: narrow (brand, scale, distribution). Leading welding brand with global distribution and a recurring consumables revenue stream.
Headquarters: Cleveland, Ohio, US · Founded: 1895 · Employees: 12,000
Size Lincoln Electric (LECO) is a United States Industrials company (Industrial Machinery) with a market value of $14.9B, the 603rd largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $275.35 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 1.6%, against -11.2% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 8th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 11.0% over the last twelve months (peer median +7.5%); the operating margin is 17.7% (peer median 17.7%).
Valuation It trades at 22.0× forward earnings against a peer median of 22.4× (11th cheapest of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 13% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +10%, so the hurdle is +4 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 15.7 points above its cost of capital (10.4% WACC).
Short interest Short interest is 1.8% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 18 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $4.64B | $4.23B | $4.01B | $4.19B | $3.76B |
| Revenue growth | — | +6% | -4% | +11% | — |
| Gross profit | $1.64B | $1.54B | $1.48B | $1.47B | $1.28B |
| EBITDA | $924M | $813M | $805M | $782M | $698M |
| Net income | $575M | $521M | $466M | $545M | $472M |
| Free cash flow | $512M | $534M | $482M | $577M | $312M |
| Capital expenditure | $155M | $127M | $117M | $91.0M | $71.9M |
| Total debt | $1.21B | $1.35B | $1.32B | $1.16B | $1.25B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln Electric LECO | $14.9B | +2% | +11% | 18% | 22.0× | 13.3% |
| Illinois Tool Works ITW | $79.8B | +11% | +5% | 27% | 23.4× | 9.7% |
| ESAB ESAB | $5.15B | -18% | +11% | 13% | 14.0× | 12.7% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | LECO | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +6.4% | -6.0% | 3rd highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +1.6% | -11.2% | 8th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -11.2% | -29.4% | 5th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +11.0% | +7.5% | 8th highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 17.7% | 17.7% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 22.0× | 22.4× | 11th cheapest of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 13.3% | 15.1% | 7th least demanding of 19 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +9.7% | +8.2% | 7th highest of 19 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +3.6 pp | +6.1 pp | 8th least demanding of 19 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +15.7 pp | +5.2 pp | 2nd highest of 20 |
| EV / EBITDA | 17.1× | 17.8× | 9th cheapest of 18 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.0× | 1.2× | 9th least indebted of 19 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln Electric LECO | United States | $14.9B | +2% | +11% | 18% | 22.0× | 13.3% | +9.7% |
| ACM Research (Shanghai) 688082.SS | China | $14.6B | +30% | +9% | 15% | 54.1× | n/a | n/a |
| Ihi 7013.T | Japan | $15.4B | -20% | +8% | 10% | 12.7× | 16.7% | +8.1% |
| IDEX IEX | United States | $16.7B | +5% | +7% | 21% | 23.7× | 14.7% | +8.0% |
| Lifco LIFCO-B.ST | Sweden | $13.1B | +1% | +7% | 19% | 29.3× | 15.2% | +15.4% |
| Nordson NDSN | United States | $17.3B | +10% | +7% | 27% | 24.5× | 15.4% | +5.6% |
| GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft G1A.DE | Germany | $12.6B | +25% | +4% | 12% | 21.0× | 5.8% | +3.5% |
| Zhejiang Sanhua Intelligent Controls 2050.HK | Hong Kong | $11.9B | -38% | +8% | 15% | 18.4× | 8.7% | +19.9% |
| Woodward WWD | United States | $18.7B | -14% | +22% | 16% | 31.0× | 18.9% | +7.4% |
| VAT VACN.SW | Switzerland | $19.0B | -11% | -2% | 25% | 48.2× | 25.8% | +9.2% |
| Lennox International LII | United States | $11.7B | -34% | +2% | 19% | 15.3× | 5.0% | +7.4% |
| Madison Air Solutions MAIR | United States | $11.6B | -45% | +27% | 17% | 20.6× | 31.9% | +27.3% |
| Watts Water Technologies WTS | United States | $11.6B | +17% | +17% | 19% | 24.6× | 15.8% | +10.1% |
| BELIMO BEAN.SW | Switzerland | $11.0B | +1% | +20% | 21% | 37.2× | 12.5% | +11.1% |
| Daifuku 6383.T | Japan | $10.9B | -33% | +21% | 15% | 18.9× | 14.7% | +8.3% |
| Graco GGG | United States | $10.9B | -13% | +5% | 27% | 20.0× | 8.1% | +6.3% |
| Pentair PNR | United States | $10.9B | -11% | -4% | 22% | 13.2× | 7.1% | +6.7% |
| Flowserve FLS | United States | $10.2B | +13% | 0% | 14% | 17.8× | 15.0% | +4.9% |
| Smc 6273.T | Japan | $21.9B | -27% | +16% | 24% | 15.9× | 16.2% | +8.8% |
| SYM SYM | United States | $22.3B | -30% | +20% | 1% | 101.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Indutrade INDT.ST | Sweden | $9.94B | +39% | +6% | 12% | 28.6× | 18.4% | +10.9% |