West Family Investments Inc. Boosts Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

West Family Investments Inc. lifted its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,047 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 190 shares during the quarter. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $976,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Linde by 101.3% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 348,981 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $166,415,000 after purchasing an additional 175,657 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Linde by 2.9% during the third quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,683 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,141,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares during the last quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. lifted its stake in Linde by 8.9% in the third quarter. Wrapmanager Inc. now owns 1,671 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $797,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 5,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,715,000 after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the period. Finally, Pathstone Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 69,849 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,308,000 after buying an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The trade was a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on LIN. Bank of America increased their price objective on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Linde Stock Down 1.2 %

LIN opened at $443.11 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $469.79 and its 200 day moving average is $453.00. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $396.07 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $210.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.96.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.63 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

Linde 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.