210,796 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN Acquired by Calamos Advisors LLC

Calamos Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 210,796 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $100,054,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 3.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,344,181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,558,016,000 after purchasing an additional 719,052 shares during the period. Amundi raised its stake in Linde by 13.4% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 3,162,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,567,796,000 after buying an additional 373,012 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Linde by 2.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,740,541 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,358,712,000 after acquiring an additional 64,078 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Linde by 28.6% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,624,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $805,475,000 after acquiring an additional 361,664 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank grew its stake in Linde by 6.6% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,370,361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $679,370,000 after acquiring an additional 85,360 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Matthew J. White sold 86,833 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $521.21, for a total transaction of $45,258,227.93. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 50,733 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,442,546.93. The trade was a 63.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.91, for a total transaction of $4,851,808.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,487,629.58. The trade was a 29.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded down $5.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $515.25. 2,394,914 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,075,647. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $486.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $494.34. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $387.78 and a 12-month high of $548.20. The stock has a market cap of $236.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.52 by $0.07. Linde had a return on equity of 20.32% and a net margin of 19.34%. The business had revenue of $9.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.16 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.21 EPS. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 17.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be issued a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on LIN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on Linde from $580.00 to $575.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Evercore boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $515.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Berenberg Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $542.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $553.05.

About Linde

Linde plc is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and supplies atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium and specialty gases. The company also designs and builds equipment and facilities used to produce and process gases.

Linde serves customers across industries including healthcare, manufacturing, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics and energy. Its operations span the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

The company was formed in 2018 through the merger of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, bringing together businesses with long histories in industrial gases and engineering.