Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Increases Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 4.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,475,664 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 65,288 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.31% of Linde worth $703,685,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of LIN. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Linde by 16.9% during the third quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 145 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the period. Prentice Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Linde by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,367 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $652,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Linde by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,706 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,290,000 after acquiring an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,831 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $873,000 after buying an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nwam LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 966 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $421,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on LIN. Barclays increased their price target on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Stock Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:LIN traded up $0.37 on Tuesday, hitting $456.81. The stock had a trading volume of 719,643 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,831,389. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $471.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $452.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.96. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $395.00 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The stock has a market cap of $217.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde's payout ratio is 42.22%.

Linde 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.