Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Acquired by Schear Investment Advisers LLC

Schear Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,113 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 286 shares during the quarter. Linde makes up approximately 1.2% of Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Schear Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,961,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of LIN. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Kozak & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 36.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

Linde Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $449.10 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $470.08 and a 200-day moving average of $452.72. The firm has a market cap of $213.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $396.07 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.63 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.