City Holding Co. Increases Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

City Holding Co. raised its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 18.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,157 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,549 shares during the period. City Holding Co.’s holdings in Linde were worth $4,843,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Linde by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 46.9% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,593,000 after buying an additional 15,393 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 40.7% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,750,000 after acquiring an additional 2,337 shares in the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 26.4% in the 4th quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 25,952 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,659,000 after acquiring an additional 5,417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Choate Investment Advisors raised its holdings in Linde by 23.6% in the 1st quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 18,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,366,000 after acquiring an additional 3,437 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Linde Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of LIN stock opened at $469.44 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $361.02 and a 12 month high of $483.36. The stock has a market cap of $225.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $464.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $449.71.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. Linde’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.57 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on LIN. Barclays increased their target price on 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 issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target 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. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

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.