Weatherly Asset Management L. P. Takes $257,000 Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Weatherly Asset Management L. P. bought a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 539 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $257,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 566.9% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $851,314,000 after acquiring an additional 1,558,538 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the second quarter worth about $420,720,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 47,830.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 936,076 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $446,377,000 after purchasing an additional 934,123 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 91.6% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $449,648,000 after purchasing an additional 463,096 shares in the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $210,480,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group lowered their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Mizuho increased their price target on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Barclays boosted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’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 sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.3 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $457.31 on Friday. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $385.12 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $472.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $451.86. The firm has a market cap of $218.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.72, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.63 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.52 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

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.