Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Director Purchases $44,134.00 in Stock

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Director Paula Rosput Reynolds purchased 100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $102,832.22. This trade represents a 75.19 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Linde Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $435.30 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $461.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $455.42. The company has a market cap of $207.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $396.07 and a 12-month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released 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. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The company had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.63 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. Linde’s payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company 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 assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $490.75.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of Linde by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 79,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,898,000 after acquiring an additional 5,021 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its stake in shares of Linde by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 54,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,215,000 after acquiring an additional 2,312 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 16.8% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 9,604 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,580,000 after acquiring an additional 1,383 shares during the last quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of Linde by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd now owns 196,036 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,457,000 after acquiring an additional 1,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atom Investors LP increased its stake in shares of Linde by 19.8% in the 3rd quarter. Atom Investors LP now owns 12,269 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,851,000 after acquiring an additional 2,028 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.