Oak Thistle LLC Purchases New Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 503 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% during 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 last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group lifted its position in shares of Linde by 655.7% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth approximately $203,000. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,168,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Portfolio Design Labs LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,897,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock traded down $9.87 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $428.94. 2,462,594 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,070,323. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $358.37 and a 52-week high of $477.71. The stock has a market cap of $206.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 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. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $435.71 and its 200 day moving average is $434.09.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.42 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were given a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.30%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Mizuho raised their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective 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. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $468.83.

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.