ING Groep NV Buys 262,691 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

ING Groep NV lifted its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 78.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 598,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 262,691 shares during the quarter. Linde makes up about 1.7% of ING Groep NV’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. ING Groep NV’s holdings in Linde were worth $285,523,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lifeworks Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 13.8% in the third quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC now owns 1,029 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $490,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Linde by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,625 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,882,000 after acquiring an additional 824 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 0.6% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 23,032 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,983,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 25.9% during the third quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC now owns 2,306 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,100,000 after purchasing an additional 475 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Linde by 131.6% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 621,444 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $296,342,000 after purchasing an additional 353,136 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on LIN shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho upped their price target on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LIN traded down $0.12 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $456.12. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 327,035 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,827,914. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The business’s fifty day moving average is $470.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $452.61. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $396.07 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $217.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.64, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.63 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.