HBK Sorce Advisory LLC Purchases 174 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

HBK Sorce Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 12.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 174 shares during the quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $688,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares in the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,168,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC purchased a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter worth $1,897,000. Cloverfields Capital Group LP purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $718,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of Linde by 46.9% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,593,000 after purchasing an additional 15,393 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Citigroup increased their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Price Performance

LIN opened at $468.81 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $454.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $448.68. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $479.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $223.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.37, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.57 EPS. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

About Linde

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.