LRI Investments LLC Boosts Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

LRI Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 23.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 436 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 82 shares during the quarter. LRI Investments LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $192,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Retirement Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter valued at about $25,000. First Pacific Financial acquired a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Linde by 44.4% during the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 310.0% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on LIN shares. HSBC decreased their target price on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Linde from $475.00 to $477.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $465.74 on Friday. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $361.02 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $223.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.13, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $445.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $444.60.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.57 EPS. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. 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.