Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC Purchases 1,217 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC increased its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 6.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,320 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 1,217 shares during the period. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $8,996,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Balentine LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $303,000. Csenge Advisory Group boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 3,684 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,666,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 9.4% during the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 22,747 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $10,592,000 after purchasing an additional 1,956 shares during the last quarter. FLC Capital Advisors bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $238,000. Finally, Diversify Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 999 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $450,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on LIN. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a report on Monday, June 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $518.80.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $465.01 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $218.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.96. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $464.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $454.32.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.75 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued 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 1.29%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were 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 $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Company 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.

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