Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Bought by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 120,352 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,186 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Linde were worth $52,812,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AE Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 39.8% during the 2nd quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,202 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,844,000 after acquiring an additional 1,196 shares in the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 11.9% during the 2nd quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 437,302 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $191,892,000 after acquiring an additional 46,494 shares in the last quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 90.9% during the 2nd quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 609 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $267,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 428.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 53,097 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $23,299,000 after acquiring an additional 43,055 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Callan Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 7.6% during the 2nd quarter. Callan Capital LLC now owns 1,084 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $476,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup raised their price target 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. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group decreased their price target 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 raised their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Trading Up 0.6 %

LIN opened at $471.91 on Monday. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $458.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $449.20. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $361.02 and a 1-year high of $479.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $226.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.61, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.57 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.