Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Acquires 116 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 100,256 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 116 shares during the quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $46,551,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.1% during the third quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 5,849 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,178,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 18.9% in the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 1,555 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $579,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its holdings in Linde by 5.3% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 36,110 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $13,445,000 after purchasing an additional 1,811 shares in the last quarter. Braun Stacey Associates Inc. bought a new position in Linde in the third quarter worth $6,876,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its holdings in Linde by 11.5% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 52,268 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $19,462,000 after purchasing an additional 5,386 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock traded down $0.06 during trading on Thursday, reaching $434.89. The stock had a trading volume of 1,368,443 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,034,231. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $433.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $435.23. The firm has a market cap of $209.04 billion, a PE ratio of 33.78, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $361.02 and a 52 week high of $477.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.42 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.28%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Mizuho raised their price objective 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. HSBC decreased 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $465.92.

Linde 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.