Boltwood Capital Management Buys Shares of 438 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Boltwood Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 438 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 1,138.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 260 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $97,000 after buying an additional 239 shares during the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in Linde in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $420,000. Glenview Trust co lifted its holdings in Linde by 114.0% in the 3rd quarter. Glenview Trust co now owns 3,367 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,254,000 after purchasing an additional 1,794 shares during the last quarter. Stokes Family Office LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Stokes Family Office LLC now owns 1,214 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $452,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Interchange Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $255,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on LIN shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, Wolfe Research began coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $468.83.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $440.02 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $436.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $432.22. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $358.37 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $211.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.95. 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 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. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th were issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 43.13%.

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.