Linde PLC $LIN Shares Newly Acquired by StoneX Group Inc.

StoneX Group Inc. bought a new position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 4,741 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,303,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,344,181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,558,016,000 after buying an additional 719,052 shares during the period. Amundi lifted its position in Linde by 13.4% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 3,162,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,567,796,000 after acquiring an additional 373,012 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Linde by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,740,541 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,358,712,000 after acquiring an additional 64,078 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Linde by 28.6% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,624,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $805,475,000 after acquiring an additional 361,664 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in Linde by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,370,361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $679,370,000 after acquiring an additional 85,360 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

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

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock opened at $515.25 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $486.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $494.34. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $387.78 and a 12-month high of $548.20. The firm has a market cap of $236.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.52 by $0.07. Linde had a net margin of 19.34% and a return on equity of 20.32%. The company had revenue of $9.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.21 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 17.89 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on LIN. Mizuho set a $583.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $574.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Linde from $535.00 to $560.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $580.00 target price on shares of Linde and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Evercore raised their price target on shares of Linde from $515.00 to $525.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $553.05.

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.