Farmers Trust Co. Acquires New Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Farmers Trust Co. purchased a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 520 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $241,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position 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 worth $4,434,406,000 after acquiring an additional 141,322 shares during the period. Provence Wealth Management Group increased its stake in shares of Linde by 655.7% in the fourth quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group now owns 597 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $245,000 after purchasing an additional 518 shares in the last quarter. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth $203,000. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,168,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Portfolio Design Labs LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $1,897,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. UBS Group cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. HSBC dropped their price objective on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $468.83.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $442.63 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $436.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $432.30. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $358.37 and a fifty-two week high of $477.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.76 billion, a PE ratio of 34.34, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were given a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Linde’s 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.