Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Acquires 735 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 13.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,291 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 735 shares during the quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,634,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Channel Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 30.4% in the fourth quarter. Channel Wealth LLC now owns 7,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,092,000 after buying an additional 1,723 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $898,188,000 after buying an additional 46,843 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in Linde by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 79,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,898,000 after buying an additional 5,021 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 16.8% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 9,604 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,580,000 after acquiring an additional 1,383 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in Linde by 4.4% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 54,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,215,000 after acquiring an additional 2,312 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on LIN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $501.82.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $439.25 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $435.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $453.05. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $396.07 and a 12 month high of $487.49. The company has a market capitalization of $209.15 billion, a PE ratio of 33.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.63 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.45 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

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.