Linde PLC $LIN Shares Newly Acquired by Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC

Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 1,045 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $496,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Linde by 3.7% in 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 in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of 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 during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.4% during 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 position in shares of Linde by 28.6% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its position in shares of Linde by 6.6% during 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 in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on LIN. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $577.00 to $591.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Berenberg Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Bank of America raised their target price on Linde from $532.00 to $550.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Linde from $560.00 to $580.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $553.05.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.91, for a total transaction of $4,851,808.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares in the company, valued at $11,487,629.58. This represents a 29.69% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $524.74 on Thursday. 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 company has a market cap of $240.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.87, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.67. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $387.78 and a 12 month high of $548.20. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $485.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $493.52.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $9.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.21 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 17.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.60 per share. 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 is currently 42.52%.

Linde Profile

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and distributes atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases. The company serves customers through packaged gases, bulk deliveries, on-site production and pipeline systems.

Linde’s products and services support a broad range of industries, including healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, chemicals, energy, refining, electronics and metals.