Advisors Asset Management Inc. Acquires 6,215 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 132.7% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 10,898 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 6,215 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $5,060,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Group LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the first quarter worth about $25,000. First Pacific Financial purchased a new stake in Linde in the first quarter worth about $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Linde by 44.4% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 310.0% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. HSBC lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $464.25.

Linde Stock Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ LIN traded up $8.36 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $451.39. The stock had a trading volume of 1,307,402 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,472,236. 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 $216.97 billion, a PE ratio of 35.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $437.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $437.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

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.