Meyer Handelman Co. Acquires Shares of 496 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Meyer Handelman Co. bought a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 496 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $230,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after buying an additional 141,322 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $3,066,825,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in Linde by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,959,993 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,624,462,000 after acquiring an additional 138,585 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,830,970 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,162,708,000 after purchasing an additional 64,362 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in shares of Linde by 6.2% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,210,751 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $823,174,000 after purchasing an additional 129,610 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $442.75 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 firm has a market cap of $212.82 billion, a PE ratio of 34.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.95. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $358.37 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $436.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $432.75.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion during 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 revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on LIN. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $468.83.

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.