Braun Stacey Associates Inc. Buys 238 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Braun Stacey Associates Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 27,690 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 238 shares during the quarter. Braun Stacey Associates Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $13,204,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Kozak & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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 boosted their price target on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho boosted their price target on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Bank of America boosted 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. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $449.10 on Monday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $470.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $452.79. The company has a market cap of $213.84 billion, a PE ratio of 34.10, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.81 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 issued its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.63 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

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.