Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Buys 173 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,264 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $3,626,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Retirement Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter worth $25,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Linde by 44.4% during the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 78 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective 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 target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Barclays raised their target price on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $484.18.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.3 %

Linde stock opened at $465.11 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $361.02 and a 12-month high of $479.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $453.18 and a 200 day moving average of $448.35.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The company’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.57 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

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.