Aviance Capital Partners LLC Acquires 700 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Aviance Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 18,676 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the quarter. Linde makes up about 1.3% of Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $8,672,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in 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 last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter worth $3,066,825,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its position in shares of Linde by 3.6% during the fourth 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. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,830,970 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,162,708,000 after acquiring an additional 64,362 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in shares of Linde by 6.2% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,210,751 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $823,174,000 after acquiring an additional 129,610 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.1 %

LIN stock traded up $0.60 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $439.41. 128,221 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,051,650. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $211.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $435.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $434.09. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $358.37 and a 1-year high of $477.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.68 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.38 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.42 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend 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 (DPR) is presently 43.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on LIN. HSBC dropped their target price on Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 6th. UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target 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 given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $468.83.

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.