Howard Capital Management Group LLC Buys New Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Howard Capital Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 528 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $252,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in Linde by 46.9% during the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,593,000 after buying an additional 15,393 shares during the period. Vident Advisory LLC raised its stake in Linde by 40.7% during the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,750,000 after buying an additional 2,337 shares during the period. Choate Investment Advisors raised its stake in shares of Linde by 23.6% in the first quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 18,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,366,000 after purchasing an additional 3,437 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth approximately $5,041,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 28.7% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,071 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,319,000 after purchasing an additional 4,479 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays increased their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America raised their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $486.06 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $232.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $361.02 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $468.84 and its 200 day moving average is $450.50.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.57 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.31%.

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.