Fluent Financial LLC Acquires 26 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Fluent Financial LLC grew its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,337 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the quarter. Fluent Financial LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $587,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LIN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,066,825,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 566.9% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $851,314,000 after purchasing an additional 1,558,538 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Linde during the 2nd quarter worth $420,720,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 91.6% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $449,648,000 after acquiring an additional 463,096 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $210,480,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Barclays upped their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded down $4.53 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $460.99. 300,658 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,887,796. 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 firm has a market cap of $220.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.11, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $361.02 and a 52 week high of $479.79. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $450.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $447.69.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.57 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. Linde’s 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.