Swiss National Bank Sells 400 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Swiss National Bank reduced its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,426,601 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.30% of Linde worth $680,289,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 10.5% in the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 6,176 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,868,000 after buying an additional 589 shares during the period. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 20.4% in the first quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC now owns 855 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $397,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. raised its position in shares of Linde by 0.9% in the first quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 8,091 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,757,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Rockport Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the first quarter valued at about $993,000. Finally, Alerus Financial NA grew its stake in Linde by 321.3% during the first quarter. Alerus Financial NA now owns 4,630 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,150,000 after buying an additional 3,531 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Linde

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

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock opened at $449.10 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $213.84 billion, a PE ratio of 34.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $396.07 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $470.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $452.72.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.63 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors 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 1.24%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.22%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target 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. 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. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America lifted their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $490.75.

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.