Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Stock Holdings Increased by Guidance Capital Inc.

Guidance Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the quarter. Guidance Capital Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $675,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced 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. UBS Group downgraded 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 research report on Wednesday, March 27th. HSBC cut their target price on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $468.83.

Linde Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded down $1.41 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $438.81. The company had a trading volume of 2,470,164 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,763,077. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $358.37 and a twelve month high of $477.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $210.93 billion, a PE ratio of 34.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $435.71 and its 200-day moving average is $433.91.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly 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 net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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