Moors & Cabot Inc. Acquires 550 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 34.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,164 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 550 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $950,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Linde by 0.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,676,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,744,033,000 after purchasing an additional 405,952 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $4,434,406,000 after purchasing an additional 141,322 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its stake in shares of Linde by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,959,993 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,624,462,000 after purchasing an additional 138,585 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Linde by 2.4% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 2,893,414 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,343,470,000 after purchasing an additional 66,880 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Linde by 1.2% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,953,147 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $906,730,000 after acquiring an additional 23,155 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on LIN. Bank of America upped their price target on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group cut their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup upped their price target on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price target on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of LIN opened at $467.03 on Thursday. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $361.02 and a 1 year high of $479.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $456.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $449.13. The stock has a market cap of $224.49 billion, a PE ratio of 36.23, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The business 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 quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.57 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.