Leavell Investment Management Inc. Has $1.82 Million Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,154 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,823,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Linde by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,744,033,000 after purchasing an additional 405,952 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the 4th 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 period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,066,825,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its position in Linde by 3.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 138,585 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its position in Linde by 2.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 66,880 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on LIN shares. Mizuho upped their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Barclays upped their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN traded up $4.96 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $456.14. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,104,998 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,951,277. 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 company’s 50-day moving average is $441.65 and its 200-day moving average is $442.02. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $361.02 and a 52 week high of $477.71. The firm has a market cap of $217.81 billion, a PE ratio of 35.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. Linde’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.57 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. 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.