Empower Advisory Group LLC Boosts Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Empower Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 6.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 172,304 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 11,151 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $82,165,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 16.9% during the third quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 1.7% in the third quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,367 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $652,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.9% in the third quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,706 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,290,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the third quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,831 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $873,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nwam LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 966 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $421,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $455.59 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $216.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a one year low of $395.00 and a one year high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.96. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $471.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $452.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.63 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid 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 1.22%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. Mizuho increased their target price on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price 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. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $490.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.