41,909 Shares in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Acquired by Sanctuary Advisors LLC

Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 41,909 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,573,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Retirement Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in Linde in the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 2nd quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 49.0% during the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on LIN. Bank of America raised their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price 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. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Six equities 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, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $475.84 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $227.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $463.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $449.81. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $361.02 and a fifty-two week high of $483.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.95.

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 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 business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.57 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis 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 Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, 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. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Company 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.