2,138 Linde PLC $LIN Shares Purchased by Welch & Forbes LLC

Welch & Forbes LLC raised its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 106,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $50,433,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $611,786,000. Flossbach Von Storch SE bought a new stake in Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at $438,525,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in Linde by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,344,181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,558,016,000 after acquiring an additional 719,052 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in Linde by 162.9% in the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,097,110 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $543,951,000 after acquiring an additional 679,738 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 394.8% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 629,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $312,240,000 after purchasing an additional 502,520 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Matthew White sold 86,833 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $521.21, for a total value of $45,258,227.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 50,733 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,442,546.93. The trade was a 63.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.91, for a total transaction of $4,851,808.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 22,138 shares in the company, valued at $11,487,629.58. This trade represents a 29.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on LIN. DZ Bank reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $532.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Linde from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Linde from $542.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $553.05.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $520.33 on Tuesday. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $387.78 and a 12 month high of $548.20. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $487.18 and its 200-day moving average is $494.74. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The company has a market capitalization of $238.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.57, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.67.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.52 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $9.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.16 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 20.32% and a net margin of 19.34%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.21 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 17.89 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.52%.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and supplies atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium and specialty gases. The company also designs and builds equipment and facilities used to produce and process gases.

Linde serves customers across industries including healthcare, manufacturing, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics and energy. Its operations span the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

The company was formed in 2018 through the merger of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, bringing together businesses with long histories in industrial gases and engineering.