Valmark Advisers Inc. Purchases 27 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.7% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,063 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 27 shares during the quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,937,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in Linde by 46.9% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,593,000 after acquiring an additional 15,393 shares in the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,750,000 after acquiring an additional 2,337 shares during the period. Choate Investment Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 23.6% during the first quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 18,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,366,000 after purchasing an additional 3,437 shares during the period. Norden Group LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the first quarter valued at approximately $5,041,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its holdings in Linde by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 54,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,215,000 after buying an additional 2,312 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on LIN shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $484.18.

Linde Stock Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $474.66 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $472.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $451.55. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $373.69 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $226.65 billion, a PE ratio of 36.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.57 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.31%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.