KCM Investment Advisors LLC Buys 406 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

KCM Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 14,004 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 406 shares during the period. KCM Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $6,145,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Members Trust Co increased its stake in Linde by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $300,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the first quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,787 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $830,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 44.4% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Linde by 49.0% in the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CNB Bank boosted its stake in Linde by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. CNB Bank now owns 847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN traded up $5.52 on Friday, reaching $478.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,385,625 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,899,248. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $447.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $445.93. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $229.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.10, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $361.02 and a 12-month high of $479.79.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 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.