Park Avenue Securities LLC Reduces Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Park Avenue Securities LLC decreased its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 19,775 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,153 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $9,430,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Linde by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,744,033,000 after buying an additional 405,952 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its position in shares of Linde by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,959,993 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,624,462,000 after purchasing an additional 138,585 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,449,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,513,551,000 after purchasing an additional 15,187 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in shares of Linde by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 3,112,160 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,365,647,000 after purchasing an additional 218,746 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LIN. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’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 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 approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded down $1.57 during trading on Friday, reaching $468.18. 2,131,023 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,860,692. 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 has a 50 day moving average of $464.17 and a 200-day moving average of $449.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $225.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $361.02 and a 12 month high of $483.36.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its 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 net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. Linde’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.57 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

Linde Company 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.