LINCOLN ELECTRIC HOLDINGS INC 10-K

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES The Company’s common shares are traded on The NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "LECO." The number of record holders of common shares at December 31, 2022 was 2,238. Issuer purchases of equity securities for the fourth quarter 2022 were: ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Total Number of Shares ​ Maximum Number ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Purchased ​ of Shares that May ​ ​ Total Number of ​ ​ ​ ​ as Part of Publicly ​ Yet be Purchased ​ ​ Shares ​ Average Price ​ Announced Plans or ​ Under the Plans Period ​ Purchased ​ Paid Per Share ​ Programs ​ or Programs (2) (3) October 1 - 31, 2022 65,983 (1) ​ $ 128.36 65,429 9,018,517 November 1 - 30, 2022 57,782 (1) ​ 145.39 57,772 8,960,745 December 1 - 31, 2022 56,476 (1) ​ 145.31 56,419 8,904,326 Total 180,241 ​ 139.13 179,620 ​ (1) The above share repurchases include the surrender of the Company’s common shares in connection with the vesting of restricted awards. (2) On April 20, 2016, the Company announced that the Board of Directors authorized a new share repurchase program, which increased the total number of the Company’s common shares authorized to be repurchased to 55 million shares. Total shares purchased through the share repurchase program were 55 million shares at a cost of $2.5 billion for a weighted average cost of $44.89 per share through December 31, 2022. (3) On February 12, 2020, the Company’s Board of Directors authorized a new share repurchase program for up to an additional 10 million shares of the Company’s common stock. Total shares purchased through the share repurchase program were 1.1 million shares at a total cost of $145.3 million for a weighted average cost of $132.65 per share through December 31, 2022. 15 Table of Contents ​ The following line graph compares the yearly percentage change in the cumulative total shareholder return on the Company’s common stock against the cumulative total return of the S&P Composite 500 Stock Index ("S&P 500") and the S&P 400 MidCap Index ("S&P 400") for the five-year calendar period commencing January 1, 2018 and ending December 31, 2022. This graph assumes that $100 was invested on December 31, 2017 in each of the Company’s common shares, the S&P 500 and the S&P 400. A peer-group index for the welding industry, in general, is not readily available because the industry is comprised of a large number of privately held competitors and competitors that are smaller parts of large publicly traded companies. ITEM 6. [RESERVED] ​