Kovack Advisors Inc. Buys 117 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Kovack Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 23.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 612 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $284,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $3,066,825,000. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $7,672,000 after acquiring an additional 468,415 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $169,189,000 after acquiring an additional 410,705 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the first quarter worth about $171,607,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its stake 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 worth $526,743,000 after acquiring an additional 347,531 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on LIN shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Citigroup lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, HSBC decreased their price target on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $468.83.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $432.94 on Friday. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $358.37 and a twelve month high of $477.71. The company’s 50 day moving average is $434.83 and its 200 day moving average is $434.37. 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 company has a market cap of $208.11 billion, a PE ratio of 33.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.93.

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. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. Linde’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th were issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.