Sapient Capital LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Sapient Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,638 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 65 shares during the quarter. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,258,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in Linde by 566.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $851,314,000 after buying an additional 1,558,538 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Linde in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $420,720,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 91.6% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $449,648,000 after purchasing an additional 463,096 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter worth approximately $210,480,000. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its stake in Linde by 108.7% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 784,477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $374,086,000 after purchasing an additional 408,659 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America raised their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $477.58 on Tuesday. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $361.02 and a 1-year high of $483.36. The company has a market cap of $229.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $466.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $449.90.

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 firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.57 EPS. Analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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.