Edgestream Partners L.P. Acquires 589 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Edgestream Partners L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 10.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,176 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 589 shares during the quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P.’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,868,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,744,033,000 after buying an additional 405,952 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after buying an additional 141,322 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $3,066,825,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Linde by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,959,993 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,624,462,000 after acquiring an additional 138,585 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Linde by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,830,970 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,162,708,000 after purchasing an additional 64,362 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN traded up $0.70 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $446.80. 89,169 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,991,799. The company has a 50 day moving average of $436.31 and a 200-day moving average of $437.28. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $361.02 and a 1-year high of $477.71. The stock has a market cap of $214.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.42 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho increased their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. HSBC dropped their price target on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 6th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $464.25.

About Linde

Linde plc operates as an industrial gas company in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South Pacific. It offers atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and rare gases; and process gases, such as carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene.