Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP Sells 23,961 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP lessened its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 29.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 57,501 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 23,961 shares during the quarter. Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP’s holdings in Linde were worth $25,232,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 566.9% in the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $851,314,000 after purchasing an additional 1,558,538 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the second quarter worth about $420,720,000. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 91.6% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 968,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $449,648,000 after buying an additional 463,096 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $210,480,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Linde by 0.9% during 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays boosted their target price on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group lowered 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, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value 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 is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.6 %

LIN opened at $471.91 on Monday. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $361.02 and a 1-year high of $479.79. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $458.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $449.20. 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 company has a market capitalization of $226.84 billion, a PE ratio of 36.61, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.57 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

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.