Independence Bank of Kentucky Buys 503 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Independence Bank of Kentucky lifted its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 80.4% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 503 shares during the period. Independence Bank of Kentucky’s holdings in Linde were worth $538,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in shares of Linde by 46.9% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,593,000 after purchasing an additional 15,393 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 40.7% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,750,000 after acquiring an additional 2,337 shares in the last quarter. Choate Investment Advisors lifted its holdings in Linde by 23.6% during the first quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 18,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,366,000 after acquiring an additional 3,437 shares in the last quarter. Norden Group LLC bought a new position in Linde during the first quarter worth about $5,041,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 28.7% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 20,071 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,319,000 after acquiring an additional 4,479 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on LIN. UBS Group dropped their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Linde stock opened at $474.04 on Friday. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $361.02 and a 12 month high of $483.36. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $465.85 and its 200-day moving average is $450.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company has a market capitalization of $226.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.08, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.31%.

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.