Zions Bancorporation National Association UT Purchases Shares of 624 Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Key Points

• Zions Bancorporation acquired 624 shares of Linde PLC valued at approximately $291,000 in the first quarter, while several other institutional investors also increased their positions in the company.
• Linde reported strong quarterly earnings with an EPS of $4.09, exceeding estimates, and their revenue for the quarter was $8.50 billion, marking a year-over-year increase of 2.3%.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, which will be paid to shareholders on September 18th, reflecting a 1.3% yield.

Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 624 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $291,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. North Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have 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 research note on Monday, June 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded up $3.15 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $480.78. 642,349 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,075,187. The firm has a market capitalization of $225.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.19, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.93. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $468.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $459.69. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $408.65 and a 52 week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.35 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.20% and a return on equity of 19.09%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.85 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued 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 of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio is 42.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

About Linde

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.