Brighton Jones LLC Purchases 9,703 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 9,703 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,605,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $17,385,000. Ethic Inc. boosted its holdings in Linde by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 14,446 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,857,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the period. StoneX Group Inc. bought a new position in Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at $2,303,000. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS bought a new position in Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at $22,403,000. Finally, Axiom Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at $118,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $515.25 on Monday. Linde PLC has a 1-year low of $387.78 and a 1-year high of $548.20. The company has a market capitalization of $236.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.24, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $486.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $494.34.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.52 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $9.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.16 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.34% and a return on equity of 20.32%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $4.21 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 17.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Linde from $574.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Linde from $560.00 to $580.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $580.00 price objective on Linde and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Mizuho set a $583.00 target price on Linde in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Linde from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $553.05.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Matthew White sold 86,833 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $521.21, for a total value of $45,258,227.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 50,733 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,442,546.93. The trade was a 63.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $518.91, for a total value of $4,851,808.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,487,629.58. This represents a 29.69% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

About Linde

Linde plc is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and supplies atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium and specialty gases. The company also designs and builds equipment and facilities used to produce and process gases.

Linde serves customers across industries including healthcare, manufacturing, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics and energy. Its operations span the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

The company was formed in 2018 through the merger of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, bringing together businesses with long histories in industrial gases and engineering.