Empowered Funds LLC Has $4.32 Million Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 6.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,060 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 575 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $4,320,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its holdings in Linde by 10.5% in the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 6,176 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,868,000 after purchasing an additional 589 shares in the last quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Linde by 20.4% in the 1st quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC now owns 855 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $397,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its position in Linde by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 8,091 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,757,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 17.3% during the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 27,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,771,000 after acquiring an additional 4,058 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new stake in Linde during the 1st quarter worth approximately $550,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on LIN. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Linde Trading Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:LIN opened at $449.10 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $470.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $452.79. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $396.07 and a 12 month high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.84 billion, a price-to-earnings 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.63 EPS. Analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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