QRG Capital Management Inc. Boosts Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 73,562 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,641 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $35,079,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 196,295 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,605,000 after purchasing an additional 1,033 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service lifted its holdings in Linde by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 940,201 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $448,344,000 after purchasing an additional 117,436 shares during the last quarter. Cohen Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Linde by 6.6% in the third quarter. Cohen Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,102 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,002,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its position in shares of Linde by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 543,857 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $259,344,000 after buying an additional 16,965 shares during the period. Finally, BSW Wealth Partners grew its position in shares of Linde by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. BSW Wealth Partners now owns 5,509 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,627,000 after buying an additional 327 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value 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 $8,136,996. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ LIN traded up $3.52 during trading on Monday, reaching $460.83. 86,438 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,826,315. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $385.12 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock has a market cap of $220.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $472.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $451.90.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.63 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.52 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a $1.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LIN. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.