GAMMA Investing LLC Increases Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 58.8% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,761 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,763 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,089,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares during the period. Provence Wealth Management Group raised its holdings in Linde by 655.7% during the 4th quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group now owns 597 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $245,000 after acquiring an additional 518 shares during the period. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $203,000. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,168,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Finally, Portfolio Design Labs LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $1,897,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on LIN shares. HSBC lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $477.25.

Linde Trading Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ LIN traded up $0.66 during trading on Friday, hitting $454.00. 2,714,589 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,497,816. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $439.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $439.96. 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 plc has a 12-month low of $361.02 and a 12-month high of $477.71. The firm has a market cap of $218.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.22, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.57 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.49 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Linde Company Profile

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.