Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Raises Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. raised its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,419 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 533 shares during the period. Great Lakes Retirement Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $7,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Retirement Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Kozak & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter worth $34,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 49.0% during the 1st quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 73 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the last quarter. Finally, J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the second quarter valued at about $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ LIN opened at $477.43 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $229.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.04, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $471.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $450.99. Linde plc has a one year low of $362.33 and a one year high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 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 analysts’ expectations of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.57 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.