MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,173 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 85 shares during the period. Linde comprises about 1.8% of MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest position. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,990,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in LIN. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 16.9% during the third quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 1.7% in the third quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,367 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $652,000 after buying an additional 23 shares during the period. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,706 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,290,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the third quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,831 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $873,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nwam LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 966 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $421,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Barclays increased their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $490.75.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded up $0.91 on Thursday, reaching $457.15. 189,169 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,827,290. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $396.07 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.68 billion, a PE ratio of 34.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s 50 day moving average is $470.47 and its 200-day moving average is $452.61.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.63 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

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.