Hilltop National Bank Purchases 30 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Hilltop National Bank lifted its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 984 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 30 shares during the quarter. Hilltop National Bank’s holdings in Linde were worth $412,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LIN. MGO One Seven LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 4.6% in the second quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 3,307 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,451,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 10.2% in the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 218,455 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $95,860,000 after acquiring an additional 20,200 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its position in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the second quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 9,899 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,344,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of Linde by 1.1% in the second quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 21,555 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,459,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 855,247 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $375,461,000 after acquiring an additional 10,941 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price 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. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Six equities research 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 has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total transaction of $963,388.30. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 25,926 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,260,958.10. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total value of $2,020,301.05. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 22,776 shares in the company, valued at $10,493,586.48. The trade was a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $414.15 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market cap of $197.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.45, a PEG ratio of 2.79 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $439.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $453.11.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

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.