Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Has $36.42 Million Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 88,680 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 3,550 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $36,422,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,919,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,182,870,000 after buying an additional 354,506 shares in the last quarter. Winder Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth approximately $1,892,774,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.5% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,081,177 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,891,976,000 after buying an additional 123,174 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.6% during the third quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,960,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,102,475,000 after buying an additional 75,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,766,608 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,030,146,000 after buying an additional 9,541 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,058,131.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares in the company, valued at $26,058,131.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $423.60 on Friday. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $350.60 and a 52-week high of $477.71. The stock has a market cap of $204.00 billion, a PE ratio of 32.86, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $455.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $422.69.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. Linde had a net margin of 19.26% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The firm had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.5 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $460.15.

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.