InterOcean Capital Group LLC Acquires 81 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

InterOcean Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 12.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the quarter. InterOcean Capital Group LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 141,322 shares during the period. Provence Wealth Management Group lifted its position in 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 during the period. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth $203,000. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,168,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. Finally, Portfolio Design Labs LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at $1,897,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. HSBC lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th. 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, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $464.25.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded down $0.73 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $443.03. The company had a trading volume of 1,648,043 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,994,690. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $436.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $437.60. The company has a market capitalization of $212.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $361.02 and a 1-year high of $477.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. 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.