Creative Planning Raises Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 51,633 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,036 shares during the period. Creative Planning’s holdings in Linde were worth $22,657,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Linde by 0.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,744,033,000 after buying an additional 405,952 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 141,322 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in shares of Linde by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,959,993 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,624,462,000 after buying an additional 138,585 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Linde by 0.4% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,449,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,513,551,000 after buying an additional 15,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in shares of Linde by 7.6% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 3,112,160 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,365,647,000 after buying an additional 218,746 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays upped their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

LIN stock opened at $476.86 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $229.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.99, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $483.36. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $462.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $449.58. 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.57 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.13%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.