Advisors Asset Management Inc. Boosts Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 21.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,606 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 3,824 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $10,303,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of LIN. Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new position in Linde in the first quarter worth about $550,000. Vident Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 40.7% in the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,750,000 after buying an additional 2,337 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,334,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its holdings in Linde by 2.4% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,893,414 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,343,470,000 after buying an additional 66,880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in Linde in the first quarter worth approximately $62,135,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on LIN. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday. Mizuho upped their price target on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $490.75.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $450.14 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $214.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $469.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $453.12. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $396.07 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.96.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.63 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.22%.

Linde Company 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.