Ethos Financial Group LLC Buys New Position in Linde PLC $LIN

Ethos Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 741 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $345,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,128,233,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Linde by 11.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,925,322 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,062,085,000 after purchasing an additional 500,489 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the first quarter worth $2,097,793,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Linde by 1.1% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,859,539 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,797,156,000 after buying an additional 40,931 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Linde by 58,312.0% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,590,596,000 after buying an additional 3,410,087 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the sale, the director directly owned 480,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the sale, the vice president owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.5%

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $480.08 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The business’s 50 day moving average is $468.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $460.24. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The company has a market cap of $225.11 billion, a PE ratio of 34.15, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.92.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.85 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on LIN shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup raised Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $519.63.

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.