Davis Rea LTD. acquired a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 10,563 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $4,852,000. Linde accounts for about 1.3% of Davis Rea LTD.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $325,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its stake in Linde by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 68,460 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $28,662,000 after acquiring an additional 1,876 shares during the period. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC raised its stake in Linde by 80.4% during the fourth quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,253 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $943,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC grew its position in Linde by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 242,183 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $101,395,000 after purchasing an additional 24,692 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several research firms have commented on LIN. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $518.80.
Read Our Latest Research Report on Linde
Linde Stock Performance
NASDAQ LIN traded up $1.40 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $472.89. The company had a trading volume of 1,212,138 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,547,221. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market cap of $222.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $466.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $456.02. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49.
Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The business's quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.75 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Linde Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.57%.
Insider Activity
In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% 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 insiders.
About Linde
(
Free Report)
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.
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