Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Acquired by Legacy Financial Advisors Inc.

Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,779 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $781,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Retirement Group LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Linde by 44.4% during the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in Linde in the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective 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. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of LIN stock opened at $471.91 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $458.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $449.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $225.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $361.02 and a fifty-two week high of $479.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde 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.