Bank of Montreal Can Acquires 85,922 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,254,030 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 85,922 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned 0.26% of Linde worth $601,320,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 16.9% in the third quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 1.7% during the third quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,367 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $652,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the period. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Linde by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,706 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,290,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,831 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $873,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 5.7% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 445 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $195,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on LIN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho raised their price objective on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target 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. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This trade represents a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded up $0.14 during trading on Monday, reaching $454.92. 231,514 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,831,843. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The company has a market capitalization of $216.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $396.07 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $468.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $453.66.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

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.