Victory Capital Management Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 2.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 380,465 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 10,939 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.08% of Linde worth $181,429,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the first quarter worth approximately $1,226,000. Interchange Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 8.4% in the first quarter. Interchange Capital Partners LLC now owns 544 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $253,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. D Orazio & Associates Inc. increased its stake in shares of Linde by 22.4% in the first quarter. D Orazio & Associates Inc. now owns 765 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $355,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the period. TBH Global Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 28.9% in the first quarter. TBH Global Asset Management LLC now owns 1,347 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $626,000 after buying an additional 302 shares during the period. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 3.6% in the first quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,051 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,345,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ LIN traded up $0.51 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $456.10. The company's stock had a trading volume of 489,596 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,829,969. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $396.07 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a market cap of $217.18 billion, a PE ratio of 34.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.94. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $470.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $452.58.

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

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors 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 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total value of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $490.75.

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.