Caprock Group LLC Acquires 595 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Caprock Group LLC lifted its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 11.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,693 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the quarter. Caprock Group LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,715,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Linde by 46.9% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,593,000 after acquiring an additional 15,393 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 40.7% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,750,000 after purchasing an additional 2,337 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its position in Linde by 4.4% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 54,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,215,000 after buying an additional 2,312 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in Linde by 28.7% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,071 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,319,000 after buying an additional 4,479 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Linde by 3.1% in the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 51,540 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $22,616,000 after buying an additional 1,564 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays increased their price objective 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Linde Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $444.06 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $211.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.72, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $469.39 and its 200 day moving average is $453.14. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $396.07 and a 52 week 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.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 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 last year, the firm earned $3.63 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. 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 payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were 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 owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 36.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.