Sustainable Insight Capital Management LLC Makes New $1.03 Million Investment in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Sustainable Insight Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,357 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,034,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Retirement Group LLC acquired a new stake in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the second quarter valued at about $28,000. First Pacific Financial bought a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 44.4% during the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on LIN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Bank of America raised their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock opened at $456.85 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $451.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $447.87. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $361.02 and a 12 month high of $479.79. The company has a market capitalization of $218.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.57 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

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.