Crestwood Advisors Group LLC Acquires 311 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC boosted its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 21.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,779 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 311 shares during the quarter. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $848,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 0.9% in 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 acquiring an additional 405,952 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in 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 during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in 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 valued at $1,365,647,000 after acquiring an additional 218,746 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in Linde by 2.4% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,374,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,130,986,000 after acquiring an additional 56,775 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in Linde by 8.7% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,993,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $874,908,000 after acquiring an additional 160,355 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $454.89 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $472.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $452.04. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $385.12 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $216.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.94. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.63 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on LIN shares. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.