Consolidated Planning Corp Buys New Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Consolidated Planning Corp purchased a new position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 6,761 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,224,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norden Group LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $315,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its position in Linde by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 37,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $17,569,000 after purchasing an additional 1,553 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP increased its stake in Linde by 104.9% in the first quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 3,777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,934 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 26.7% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 6,468 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,003,000 after buying an additional 1,365 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop National Bank acquired a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at about $421,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN opened at $465.47 on Friday. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $389.14 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $221.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $472.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $452.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. Linde’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.63 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America increased their price objective on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.