Guidance Capital Inc. Grows Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Guidance Capital Inc. grew its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,649 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the quarter. Guidance Capital Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $748,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Linde by 0.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,744,033,000 after acquiring an additional 405,952 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in 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 worth $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $3,066,825,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its stake in Linde by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,959,993 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,624,462,000 after purchasing an additional 138,585 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in Linde by 2.4% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,893,414 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,343,470,000 after purchasing an additional 66,880 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on LIN. UBS Group reduced 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 reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday. Barclays boosted their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of Linde stock traded up $5.52 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $478.25. The company had a trading volume of 1,385,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,899,424. The company’s 50-day moving average is $448.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $446.75. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $479.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $228.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend 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.