S&CO Inc. Purchases 96 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

S&CO Inc. grew its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 26,094 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the quarter. S&CO Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $12,443,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Kozak & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the third quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho boosted their price target 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. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Linde Stock Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ LIN opened at $449.10 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $213.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.10, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 52 week low of $396.07 and a 52 week high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a fifty day moving average of $470.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $452.72.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The business’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.63 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 36.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.