LongView Wealth Management Makes New Investment in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

LongView Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 431 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $200,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $3,066,825,000. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 104.2% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 18,679 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,672,000 after acquiring an additional 468,415 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 33,201.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 411,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $169,189,000 after acquiring an additional 410,705 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the first quarter valued at $171,607,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in Linde by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,282,518 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $526,743,000 after acquiring an additional 347,531 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

LIN opened at $438.81 on Friday. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $358.37 and a 1 year high of $477.71. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $435.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $433.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm 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.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $8.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.42 EPS. Linde’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on LIN. HSBC cut their price target 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. Mizuho raised their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. UBS Group lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.