Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT Boosts Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT lifted its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 34.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 26,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,708 shares during the quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT’s holdings in Linde were worth $11,531,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Members Trust Co grew its position in Linde by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Members Trust Co now owns 646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $300,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the period. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,787 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $830,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 44.4% during the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 49.0% during the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, CNB Bank increased its holdings in Linde by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. CNB Bank now owns 847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on LIN. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $471.66 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $226.72 billion, a PE ratio of 36.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $456.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $449.00. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $361.02 and a fifty-two week high of $479.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

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.