Valmark Advisers Inc. Trims Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Valmark Advisers Inc. cut its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,036 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 29 shares during the quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,771,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Linde by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,744,033,000 after acquiring an additional 405,952 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Linde by 1.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,066,825,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its stake in Linde by 3.6% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 138,585 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased 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 buying an additional 66,880 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

LIN stock opened at $478.25 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $361.02 and a 1 year high of $479.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $448.28 and a 200 day moving average of $446.75. The company has a market cap of $228.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.10, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced 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. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.57 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 43.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on LIN shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Friday. HSBC cut their target price on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six equities 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, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde 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.