Motiv8 Investments LLC Grows Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Motiv8 Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.6% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,484 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. Motiv8 Investments LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $651,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Retirement Group LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the first quarter worth $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the second quarter worth $28,000. First Pacific Financial bought a new stake in Linde in the first quarter worth $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Linde by 44.4% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on LIN shares. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded down $8.67 during trading on Friday, reaching $456.85. 2,012,129 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,897,746. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $451.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $447.87. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $479.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $218.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released 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 the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.57 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

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.