Kimelman & Baird LLC Boosts Holdings in Linde PLC $LIN

Key Points

• Kimelman & Baird LLC increased its stake in Linde PLC by 3.6%, totaling 34,008 shares, valued at approximately $15.84 million as of the latest SEC filing.
• In the last quarter, several institutional investors raised their positions in Linde, with 82.80% of the company's stock now owned by institutional investors.
• Linde recently reported earnings of $4.09 per share, surpassing analyst expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, marking an annualized dividend yield of 1.3%.

Kimelman & Baird LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 3.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 34,008 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 1,171 shares during the quarter. Linde comprises 1.3% of Kimelman & Baird LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Kimelman & Baird LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $15,835,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 7,788 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,261,000 after buying an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. AlTi Global Inc. purchased a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $971,000. Truist Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Linde by 75.0% in the first quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 193,563 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $90,131,000 after purchasing an additional 82,952 shares during the period. Freedom Day Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 9.6% in the first quarter. Freedom Day Solutions LLC now owns 6,102 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,841,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the period. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $468,360,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on 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, seven have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded down $1.57 during trading on Monday, reaching $478.51. 1,218,067 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,490,247. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Linde PLC has a fifty-two week low of $408.65 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $468.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $460.24. The firm has a market cap of $224.38 billion, a PE ratio of 34.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.92.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (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 revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.85 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.67%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total transaction of $23,815,274.42. Following the transaction, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. The trade was a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.