National Bank of Canada FI Buys 15,393 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 46.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,393 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in Linde were worth $20,593,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Mutual Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 31.9% in the 4th quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 1,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $418,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the period. Cooper Financial Group bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth $227,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 107,871 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $44,304,000 after buying an additional 1,451 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 54.2% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 49,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,269,000 after acquiring an additional 17,340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Linde by 75.6% during the 4th quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,541 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,454,000 after acquiring an additional 1,524 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on LIN shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. HSBC dropped 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. Citigroup increased their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $464.25.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LIN traded up $3.46 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $447.22. The stock had a trading volume of 655,610 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,987,018. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $361.02 and a 12-month high of $477.71. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $436.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $437.60. The stock has a market cap of $214.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.42 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Linde’s dividend 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.