AE Wealth Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

AE Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 39.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,202 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 1,196 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,844,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. King Luther Capital Management Corp increased its position in 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 valued at $191,892,000 after buying an additional 46,494 shares in the last quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management raised its position in shares of Linde by 90.9% in the 2nd quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 609 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $267,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 428.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. now owns 53,097 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $23,299,000 after purchasing an additional 43,055 shares during the last quarter. Callan Capital LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Callan Capital LLC now owns 1,084 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $476,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in Linde by 7.6% during 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. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $477.36 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $458.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $449.28. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $361.02 and a 1-year high of $479.79. The firm has a market cap of $229.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.57 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.