MFG Investments LLC Purchases 1,799 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

MFG Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,799 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $854,000. Linde comprises approximately 1.0% of MFG Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Sanders Morris Harris LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $847,000. Carderock Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at $7,498,000. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the third quarter worth $1,875,000. First Financial Bank Trust Division purchased a new position in Linde during the third quarter worth $4,034,000. Finally, Hikari Power Ltd purchased a new position in Linde during the second quarter worth $20,965,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. Argus cut their price target on Linde from $563.00 to $538.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Linde from $549.00 to $568.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Evercore lifted their price objective on Linde from $515.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $542.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $535.00 to $560.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $553.05.

Linde Stock Down 1.6%

LIN stock opened at $511.55 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $234.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.50, a PEG ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.86. Linde PLC has a one year low of $387.78 and a one year high of $548.20. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $484.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $493.09.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.52 by $0.07. Linde had a return on equity of 20.32% and a net margin of 19.34%. The company had revenue of $9.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.21 EPS. Linde’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 17.89 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.52%.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and distributes atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases. The company serves customers through packaged gases, bulk deliveries, on-site production and pipeline systems.

Linde’s products and services support a broad range of industries, including healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, chemicals, energy, refining, electronics and metals.