Northwest Bancshares Inc. Has $714,000 Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Northwest Bancshares Inc. lowered its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 6.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,498 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Northwest Bancshares Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $714,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the second quarter worth about $420,720,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Linde by 47,830.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 936,076 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $446,377,000 after acquiring an additional 934,123 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $210,480,000. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its position in Linde by 108.7% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 784,477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $374,086,000 after acquiring an additional 408,659 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Linde by 131.6% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 621,444 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $296,342,000 after acquiring an additional 353,136 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $444.06 on Wednesday. Linde plc has a one year low of $396.07 and a one year high of $487.49. The company has a market cap of $211.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $469.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $453.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The business’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.63 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is 42.22%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’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 approximately $8,136,996. This represents a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on LIN shares. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America upped their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays raised their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

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.