Kowal Investment Group LLC Invests $204,000 in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Kowal Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 439 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. 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 valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 310.0% during the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 347.6% during the 4th quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 94 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A purchased a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company 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 boosted their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. BMO Capital Markets cut 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. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. 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 target price of $468.83.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $428.94 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $206.18 billion, a PE ratio of 33.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day moving average of $435.71 and a 200 day moving average of $434.09. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $358.37 and a 52 week high of $477.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for 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 for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 of this dividend was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.30%. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

About Linde

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.