Hartford Funds Management Co LLC Acquires 94 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Hartford Funds Management Co LLC raised its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,359 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the period. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $648,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the second quarter worth $28,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the second quarter worth $33,000. Kozak & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth $34,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp bought a new position in shares of Linde during the second quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth $43,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho lifted their price target 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $490.75.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of LIN stock opened at $454.78 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $396.07 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $468.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $453.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $216.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.53, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.94.

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, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.63 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.22%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

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.