NorthRock Partners LLC Purchases 606 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

NorthRock Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 34.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,340 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 606 shares during the period. NorthRock Partners LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,087,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Retirement Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter worth $25,000. First Pacific Financial purchased a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 49.0% during the first quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 44.4% during the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup lifted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, HSBC reduced their price objective on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $464.25.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded down $2.52 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $438.18. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,270,606 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,026,969. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.62 billion, a PE ratio of 33.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $477.71. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $434.57 and a 200 day moving average of $435.79. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.42 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 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.