Whittier Trust Co. Buys 1,324 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Whittier Trust Co. grew its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 112,928 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,324 shares during the period. Linde comprises about 0.7% of Whittier Trust Co.’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Linde were worth $53,849,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 28.0% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,318 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $541,000 after buying an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. raised its stake in Linde by 14.3% in the first quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 1,425 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $662,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Cooper Financial Group lifted its position in Linde by 37.9% during the first quarter. Cooper Financial Group now owns 764 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the period. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the first quarter worth about $143,000. Finally, Annex Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 44,557 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,689,000 after buying an additional 2,835 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’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. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price 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 assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Linde Stock Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ LIN traded down $2.73 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $483.72. 540,521 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,826,385. 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 firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $469.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $450.50. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The firm has a market cap of $232.51 billion, a PE ratio of 37.74, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.57 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.15%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 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.