Breakwater Capital Group Takes $238,000 Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Breakwater Capital Group bought a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 512 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $238,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morningstar Investment Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter worth $240,000. Eventide Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the third quarter worth about $685,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new stake in Linde during the third quarter worth approximately $4,468,000. United Services Automobile Association raised its position in Linde by 8.9% during the third quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 12,990 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,837,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067 shares during the period. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 115.4% in the 3rd quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 530 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $197,000 after purchasing an additional 284 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock opened at $438.81 on Monday. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $358.37 and a 1-year high of $477.71. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $435.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $434.09. The company has a market capitalization of $210.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.04, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $8.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.42 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the topic of several recent research reports. HSBC decreased their price target on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. UBS Group lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho raised 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. Finally, Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. 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 stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.