J. Stern & Co. LLP Has $2.14 Million Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

J. Stern & Co. LLP lowered its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 40.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,867 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,350 shares during the quarter. Linde makes up about 0.3% of J. Stern & Co. LLP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding. J. Stern & Co. LLP’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,136,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Retirement Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 49.0% in the first quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 44.4% during the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN opened at $471.91 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.95. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $479.79. The firm has a market cap of $226.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s fifty day moving average is $458.07 and its 200-day moving average is $449.20.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.