Brighton Jones LLC Increases Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,299 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 75 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $570,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 15.6% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 19,768 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,674,000 after purchasing an additional 2,670 shares during the last quarter. Lokken Investment Group LLC grew its position in Linde by 13.6% during the second quarter. Lokken Investment Group LLC now owns 2,329 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,022,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the period. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co bought a new position in Linde during the second quarter valued at about $18,463,000. Waterloo Capital L.P. increased its holdings in Linde by 15.8% during the second quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 908 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $398,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Finally, O Brien Greene & Co. Inc raised its position in Linde by 2.4% in the second quarter. O Brien Greene & Co. Inc now owns 1,547 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $679,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $471.91 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $226.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $361.02 and a 52 week high of $479.79. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $458.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $449.30.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. Linde’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.57 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price 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. Barclays increased their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

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.