Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV Raises Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 17.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,412 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 210 shares during the quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV’s holdings in Linde were worth $620,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Retirement Group LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the first quarter valued at $25,000. First Pacific Financial purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth approximately $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Linde by 44.4% during the fourth quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 310.0% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 82 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Linde from $475.00 to $477.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. HSBC decreased their target price on shares of Linde from $458.00 to $452.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

LIN traded up $2.16 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $445.66. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,527,508 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,982,738. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $361.02 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $439.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $440.21. The stock has a market cap of $214.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.57 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

About Linde

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.