180 Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

180 Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,054 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $489,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Norges Bank bought a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,066,825,000. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 104.2% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 18,679 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,672,000 after acquiring an additional 468,415 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 33,201.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 411,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $169,189,000 after purchasing an additional 410,705 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Linde during the first quarter valued at approximately $171,607,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in Linde by 37.2% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,282,518 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $526,743,000 after buying an additional 347,531 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ:LIN traded up $0.09 on Friday, reaching $440.31. 293,818 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,049,611. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $435.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $433.60. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $358.37 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The firm has a market cap of $211.65 billion, a PE ratio of 34.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.95. 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 issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 43.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on LIN shares. Wolfe Research began coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price 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. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $468.83.

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.