Addenda Capital Inc. Reduces Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Addenda Capital Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 13,462 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 631 shares during the period. Addenda Capital Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $6,251,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake 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 worth $4,434,406,000 after acquiring an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group boosted its position in Linde by 655.7% in the fourth quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group now owns 597 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $245,000 after buying an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $203,000. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC boosted its position in Linde by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,168,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Portfolio Design Labs LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,897,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. HSBC decreased their price target on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased 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. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $468.83.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $438.81 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $210.93 billion, a PE ratio of 34.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.95. 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 plc has a twelve month low of $358.37 and a twelve month high of $477.71. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $435.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $433.86.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its 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. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.42 EPS. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current 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 issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

Linde Company 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.