Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC Takes Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 452 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $210,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 347.6% during the fourth quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 94 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, OLD Point Trust & Financial Services N A purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Mizuho raised their price target 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 raised their price target 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 lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Citigroup lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $468.83.

Linde Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded down $1.41 on Friday, hitting $438.81. 2,470,164 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,763,077. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $358.37 and a 52 week high of $477.71. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $435.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $433.91. The company has a market cap of $210.93 billion, a PE ratio of 34.04, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.95.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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