Clearbridge Investments LLC Grows Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 8.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,993,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 160,355 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned about 0.41% of Linde worth $874,908,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Linde by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,796,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in Linde by 46.9% in the first 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. Vontobel Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,603,000. Prudential PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 27,136 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $11,145,000 after acquiring an additional 2,409 shares during the period. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 40.7% in the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,750,000 after acquiring an additional 2,337 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. Citigroup increased 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. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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. Bank of America increased their price objective on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $476.86 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $462.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $449.58. The company has a market cap of $229.22 billion, a PE ratio of 36.99, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $361.02 and a 1-year high of $483.36.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.57 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

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.