LS Investment Advisors LLC Purchases 67 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

LS Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 21,456 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the quarter. Linde accounts for about 1.5% of LS Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest position. LS Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $10,232,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Linde by 46.9% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,593,000 after purchasing an additional 15,393 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 40.7% during the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,750,000 after acquiring an additional 2,337 shares during the period. Choate Investment Advisors grew its position in Linde by 23.6% during the 1st quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 18,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,366,000 after acquiring an additional 3,437 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its stake in Linde by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 54,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,215,000 after purchasing an additional 2,312 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in Linde by 28.7% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,071 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,319,000 after purchasing an additional 4,479 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays upped their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Six 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 company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $490.75.

Linde Stock Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ LIN opened at $465.47 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $472.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $452.12. Linde plc has a one year low of $389.14 and a one year high of $487.49. The company has a market capitalization of $221.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.94. 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The business’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.63 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued 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 yield of 1.19%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

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.