Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. Buys New Stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 495 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $230,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC increased its stake in Linde by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 7,788 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,261,000 after buying an additional 332 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 300.3% in the 4th quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 26,150 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,948,000 after purchasing an additional 19,618 shares during the last quarter. AlTi Global Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $971,000. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Linde by 75.0% in the 1st quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 193,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $90,131,000 after purchasing an additional 82,952 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Freedom Day Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 9.6% in the 1st quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,841,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.6%

LIN stock opened at $473.23 on Wednesday. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49. The firm has a market cap of $221.90 billion, a PE ratio of 33.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $467.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $459.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The business had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.85 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $519.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. This trade represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 59,557 shares of company stock worth $28,037,479. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.