Callan Capital LLC Increases Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Callan Capital LLC lifted its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,084 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 77 shares during the quarter. Callan Capital LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $476,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 218,746 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its stake in shares of Linde by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,141 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $500,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 24,801 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,883,000 after buying an additional 1,175 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 12.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 25,018 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,978,000 after buying an additional 2,817 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,299 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $570,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related 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 value 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. 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 corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on LIN. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays raised their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group reduced their target price 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $471.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market cap of $225.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $458.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $449.38. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $361.02 and a 1 year high of $479.79.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

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