First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Increases Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 13.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,446 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 1,460 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Linde were worth $5,779,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position 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 buying an additional 141,322 shares during the period. Provence Wealth Management Group increased its stake in shares of Linde by 655.7% during the 4th 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 last quarter. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter worth approximately $203,000. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,168,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Portfolio Design Labs LLC bought a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $1,897,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on LIN. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Citigroup downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $475.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, UBS Group lowered Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $468.83.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN traded up $2.85 during trading on Thursday, hitting $432.94. 865,090 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,724,658. The firm has a market capitalization of $208.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.59, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.93. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $358.37 and a 1-year high of $477.71. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $434.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $434.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 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 company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. Linde’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. 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.