Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Position Trimmed by Exeter Financial LLC

Exeter Financial LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,048 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 198 shares during the period. Linde comprises about 1.3% of Exeter Financial LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Exeter Financial LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,765,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased 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 valued at $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $3,066,825,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 138,585 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Linde by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,830,970 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,162,708,000 after acquiring an additional 64,362 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of Linde by 6.2% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,210,751 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $823,174,000 after acquiring an additional 129,610 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on LIN. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. HSBC lowered 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. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock 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 upped their price target for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $468.83.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ LIN traded up $0.27 on Thursday, reaching $438.69. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 435,807 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,057,190. 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 cap of $210.87 billion, a PE ratio of 34.02, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $435.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $433.60.

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, beating 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 company had revenue of $8.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. Linde’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

About Linde

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.