UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp Grows Stock Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp increased its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,590 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $746,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Linde by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,600,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,470,284,000 after purchasing an additional 453,108 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Linde by 18.6% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,542,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,511,751,000 after buying an additional 1,182,157 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,097,793,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Linde by 1.1% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,859,539 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,797,156,000 after buying an additional 40,931 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Linde by 1.9% during the second quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 3,401,590 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,577,624,000 after buying an additional 61,829 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Linde from $530.00 to $535.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $507.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $520.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total value of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $429.91 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $466.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $464.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The stock has a market cap of $201.59 billion, a PE ratio of 30.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.93. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $486.38.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.85 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

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.