Alta Advisers Ltd Buys New Shares in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Alta Advisers bought 3,317 Linde shares in the third quarter, valued at approximately $1.57 million. Institutional investors collectively own 82.8% of the company’s stock.
• Linde reported quarterly earnings of $4.59 per share and revenue of $9.4 billion, beating analysts’ estimates; revenue increased 9.3% year over year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $1.60 per share, equivalent to a 1.2% annual yield. Analysts’ consensus rating was “Moderate Buy,” with a $553.05 average price target.

Alta Advisers Ltd bought a new position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 3,317 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $1,574,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Linde by 3.7% in the 2nd 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 increased its stake in Linde by 13.4% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 3,162,409 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,567,796,000 after purchasing an additional 373,012 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Linde by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,740,541 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,358,712,000 after purchasing an additional 64,078 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Linde by 28.6% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,624,728 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $805,475,000 after buying an additional 361,664 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its holdings in Linde by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,370,361 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $679,370,000 after buying an additional 85,360 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock opened at $521.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market cap of $239.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $485.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $493.93. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $387.78 and a 52 week high of $548.20.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $9.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.16 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.34% and a return on equity of 20.32%. The firm's revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.21 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 17.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 3rd. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is 42.52%.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,350 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $11,487,629.58. This trade represents a 29.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on LIN. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $577.00 to $591.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Argus dropped their target price on shares of Linde from $563.00 to $538.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 28th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $542.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. Mizuho set a $583.00 price target on shares of Linde in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $580.00 price objective on shares of Linde and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $553.05.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc NASDAQ: LIN is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and distributes atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases. The company serves customers through packaged gases, bulk deliveries, on-site production and pipeline systems.

Linde's products and services support a broad range of industries, including healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, chemicals, energy, refining, electronics and metals.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.