Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Sells 222 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC lessened its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,969 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 222 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,181,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Linde by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,744,033,000 after buying an additional 405,952 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Linde by 1.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,066,825,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted 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 last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.4% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America upped their price objective 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. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $456.85 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $218.15 billion, a PE ratio of 35.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $451.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $447.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $361.02 and a 12-month high of $479.79.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.