Boston Research & Management Inc. Decreases Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Boston Research & Management Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 16,457 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 218 shares during the period. Linde makes up approximately 1.8% of Boston Research & Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Boston Research & Management Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $7,221,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.9% in the 1st 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. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,959,993 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,624,462,000 after purchasing an additional 138,585 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 3,112,160 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,365,647,000 after purchasing an additional 218,746 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,953,147 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $906,730,000 after purchasing an additional 23,155 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Barclays upped 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, Bank of America boosted their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $471.91 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $225.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.61, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $458.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $449.38. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $361.02 and a 12 month high of $479.79.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.57 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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.