KPP Advisory Services LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

KPP Advisory Services LLC lowered its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,422 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 317 shares during the quarter. KPP Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $678,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in shares of Linde by 46.9% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,593,000 after acquiring an additional 15,393 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 40.7% in the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,750,000 after buying an additional 2,337 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 4.4% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 54,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,215,000 after buying an additional 2,312 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 28.7% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,071 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,319,000 after acquiring an additional 4,479 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 51,540 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $22,616,000 after acquiring an additional 1,564 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Barclays lifted their target price on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $490.75.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock traded down $4.39 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $449.10. 2,417,805 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,836,589. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $213.84 billion, a PE ratio of 34.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $396.07 and a 12 month high of $487.49. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $470.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $452.64.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.63 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.48 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 42.22%.

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.