Avantax Planning Partners Inc. Buys New Stake in Linde PLC $LIN

Avantax Planning Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 4,793 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,275,000.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Atwood & Palmer Inc. grew its position in Linde by 12.9% in the second quarter. Atwood & Palmer Inc. now owns 175 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $91,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.5% during the first quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 4,159 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,062,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the period. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 74.2% during the second quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 54 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the period. Towercrest Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.8% during the third quarter. Towercrest Capital Management now owns 918 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $436,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Capital Management Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 55.6% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC now owns 70 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Argus lowered their target price on shares of Linde from $563.00 to $538.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $549.00 to $568.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $535.00 to $560.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Mizuho set a $583.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $553.05.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,350 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.91, for a total value of $4,851,808.50. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,487,629.58. This trade represents a 29.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Matthew White sold 86,833 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $521.21, for a total value of $45,258,227.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 50,733 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,442,546.93. This trade represents a 63.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $515.25 on Friday. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $387.78 and a 1 year high of $548.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $486.57 and its 200-day moving average is $494.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $236.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.24, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.67.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.52 by $0.07. Linde had a net margin of 19.34% and a return on equity of 20.32%. The business had revenue of $9.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.16 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.21 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 17.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be given a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.52%.

Linde Profile

Linde plc is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and supplies atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium and specialty gases. The company also designs and builds equipment and facilities used to produce and process gases.

Linde serves customers across industries including healthcare, manufacturing, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics and energy. Its operations span the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

The company was formed in 2018 through the merger of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, bringing together businesses with long histories in industrial gases and engineering.