William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. Makes New $88,000 Investment in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $88,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $532,000. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC raised its stake in Linde by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC now owns 3,244 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,332,000 after buying an additional 156 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in Linde by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 7,999 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,285,000 after acquiring an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in Linde by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 30,847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,669,000 after acquiring an additional 556 shares during the period. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $442,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock opened at $479.51 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $228.97 billion, a PE ratio of 37.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day moving average of $461.49 and a 200-day moving average of $449.56. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $361.02 and a 12-month high of $483.36.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted 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. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.57 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.13%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on LIN. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Barclays raised 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. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $484.18.

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.