Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Purchased by BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 191.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 169,145 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 111,057 shares during the quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp's holdings in Linde were worth $74,223,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,434,406,000 after buying an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,168,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Portfolio Design Labs LLC purchased a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,897,000. Cloverfields Capital Group LP purchased a new stake in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $718,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in Linde by 46.9% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $20,593,000 after purchasing an additional 15,393 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Trading Up 0.4 %

LIN traded up $1.99 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $479.35. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,588,586 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,882,171. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $459.53 and its 200-day moving average price is $449.40. 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 stock has a market cap of $230.41 billion, a PE ratio of 37.19, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $480.76.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. Linde's revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.57 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business's 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $484.18.

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.