GSA Capital Partners LLP Acquires New Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,684 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $1,280,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of LIN. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 566.9% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,833,465 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $851,314,000 after purchasing an additional 1,558,538 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at $420,720,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 47,830.2% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 936,076 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $446,377,000 after buying an additional 934,123 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the 1st quarter worth $210,480,000. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its stake in Linde by 108.7% during the third quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 784,477 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $374,086,000 after acquiring an additional 408,659 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho raised their price target 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. lifted their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company 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 stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective 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. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company's stock.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock traded down $4.39 during trading on Friday, hitting $449.10. The stock had a trading volume of 2,413,987 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,836,589. 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 plc has a 12 month low of $396.07 and a 12 month high of $487.49. The firm has a market cap of $213.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.94. The business's 50-day moving average is $470.23 and its 200 day moving average is $452.61.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.89 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.63 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Linde Company 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.