V Square Quantitative Management LLC Has $4.49 Million Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 7.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 9,412 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 678 shares during the quarter. Linde accounts for 0.7% of V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest position. V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $4,488,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Retirement Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the second quarter worth $28,000. Kozak & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Linde during the third quarter worth $34,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Linde by 49.0% during the first quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in Linde in the second quarter valued at $42,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Linde Stock Down 0.6 %

Linde stock traded down $3.01 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $483.05. 287,437 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,827,960. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $230.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $468.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $450.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.31%.

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.