Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Acquired by Intech Investment Management LLC

Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 15.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 19,768 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,670 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $8,674,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,434,406,000 after acquiring an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC boosted its position in Linde by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,168,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,897,000. Cloverfields Capital Group LP acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter worth approximately $718,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in Linde by 46.9% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,593,000 after acquiring an additional 15,393 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on LIN shares. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $471.91 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $458.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $449.38. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $361.02 and a 52 week high of $479.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $225.34 billion, a PE ratio of 36.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.57 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by 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.