American National Bank & Trust Co. VA Purchases Shares of 13,129 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

American National Bank & Trust Co. VA purchased a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 13,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,096,000. Linde makes up approximately 1.4% of American National Bank & Trust Co. VA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FCG Investment Co raised its stake in shares of Linde by 110.0% in the first quarter. FCG Investment Co now owns 1,222 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $567,000 after acquiring an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. Park Edge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 3.4% in the first quarter. Park Edge Advisors LLC now owns 2,195 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,019,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 1.2% during the first quarter. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC now owns 8,110 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,766,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its stake in shares of Linde by 13.3% during the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 12,446 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,779,000 after buying an additional 1,460 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 5.5% during the first quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,787 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,616,000 after buying an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. 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 research note on Monday, May 6th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $468.83.

Linde Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of Linde stock traded up $2.85 on Thursday, hitting $432.94. The company had a trading volume of 865,090 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,724,658. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $358.37 and a twelve month high of $477.71. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $434.83 and a 200-day moving average of $434.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $208.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.93. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.42 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 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.