Romano Brothers AND Company Boosts Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Romano Brothers AND Company raised its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,984 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 195 shares during the period. Romano Brothers AND Company’s holdings in Linde were worth $946,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Linde by 0.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,744,033,000 after purchasing an additional 405,952 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Linde by 0.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,449,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,513,551,000 after acquiring an additional 15,187 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 7.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 218,746 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 8.7% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,993,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $874,908,000 after purchasing an additional 160,355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,953,147 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $906,730,000 after purchasing an additional 23,155 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup increased their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.6 %

LIN opened at $474.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $471.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $450.99. Linde plc has a one year low of $362.33 and a one year high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $226.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.11, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The business’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.57 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.52 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.31%.

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.