Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Boosts Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 138,590 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,621 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $58,024,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Gabelli Funds LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 5.5% in the second quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 5,750 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,523,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Linde by 13.2% in the 2nd quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,522 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,562,000 after buying an additional 411 shares during the last quarter. AlTi Global Inc. raised its stake in shares of Linde by 34.7% during the 2nd quarter. AlTi Global Inc. now owns 680 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $298,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its position in Linde by 14.8% during the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 708,509 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $290,087,000 after acquiring an additional 91,101 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Linde by 0.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,449,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,513,551,000 after acquiring an additional 15,187 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

Linde Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Linde stock opened at $440.83 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $209.91 billion, a PE ratio of 33.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $435.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $453.11. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $396.07 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.63 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total transaction of $963,388.30. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 25,926 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,260,958.10. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds acquired 100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $441.34 per share, with a total value of $44,134.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $102,832.22. This represents a 75.19 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde 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.