Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds Voor DE Media PNO Invests $9.54 Million in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds Voor DE Media PNO bought a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 20,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,537,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. 1858 Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 50.1% in the third quarter. 1858 Wealth Management LLC now owns 692 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $330,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the period. James Hambro & Partners LLP lifted its holdings in Linde by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. James Hambro & Partners LLP now owns 286,546 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $136,607,000 after buying an additional 7,267 shares in the last quarter. Bellecapital International Ltd. acquired a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $241,000. Vest Financial LLC boosted its position in Linde by 16.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 117,929 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $56,236,000 after buying an additional 16,231 shares during the period. Finally, Buckley Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 2.6% in the third quarter. Buckley Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,289 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,522,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction 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 approximately $8,136,996. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LIN has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded down $2.81 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $483.64. 350,595 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,825,762. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $469.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $450.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.95. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $361.02 and a 12-month high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $232.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $8.30 billion for 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.57 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

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.