Farmers Trust Co. Makes New Investment in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Farmers Trust Co. bought a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 520 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $241,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Johnson Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Linde by 44.4% during the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC now owns 1,399 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $575,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Claro Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 2,316 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $951,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Holderness Investments Co. grew its stake in shares of Linde by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Holderness Investments Co. now owns 1,863 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $765,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Seven Mile Advisory grew its stake in shares of Linde by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Seven Mile Advisory now owns 640 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $238,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $468.83.

Linde Trading Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $442.63 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.76 billion, a PE ratio of 34.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $436.37 and its 200 day moving average is $432.30. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $358.37 and a 12 month high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 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 analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.42 EPS. Linde’s revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th were paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.26%. 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.