Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Grows Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 5.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 24,801 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 1,175 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $10,883,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Linde by 0.9% in 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 in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Linde by 1.3% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 141,322 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in Linde by 3.6% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 138,585 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in Linde by 2.4% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,893,414 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,343,470,000 after acquiring an additional 66,880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in Linde by 1.2% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,953,147 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $906,730,000 after purchasing an additional 23,155 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Up 0.6 %

LIN opened at $471.91 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $225.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.61, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a one year low of $361.02 and a one year high of $479.79. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $458.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $449.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.