Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Purchased by Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 53,345 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,303 shares during the quarter. Linde comprises approximately 1.7% of Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Linde were worth $25,438,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LIN. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 566.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $851,314,000 after acquiring an additional 1,558,538 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 2nd quarter worth $420,720,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 91.6% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $449,648,000 after buying an additional 463,096 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Linde during the 1st quarter valued at $210,480,000. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its stake in shares of Linde by 108.7% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 784,477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $374,086,000 after buying an additional 408,659 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. 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 note 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, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Trading Up 0.9 %

Linde stock traded up $4.08 during trading on Friday, reaching $473.50. 71,773 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,843,204. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $483.36. The company has a market capitalization of $226.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.72, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.94. 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $465.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $449.99.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.17%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.31%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated 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 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.