Financial & Tax Architects LLC Grows Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Financial & Tax Architects LLC raised its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 31.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,074 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the period. Financial & Tax Architects LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $471,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Linde by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,744,033,000 after purchasing an additional 405,952 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,434,406,000 after acquiring an additional 141,322 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,959,993 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,624,462,000 after acquiring an additional 138,585 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,893,414 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,343,470,000 after acquiring an additional 66,880 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,953,147 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $906,730,000 after acquiring an additional 23,155 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $471.66 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $361.02 and a 52-week high of $479.79. The company has a 50 day moving average of $456.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $449.00. The company has a market capitalization of $226.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 quarter last year, the company earned $3.57 earnings per share. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Linde 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.