BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Acquires 111,057 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 191.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 169,145 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 111,057 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $74,223,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Linde by 1.3% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 141,322 shares during the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC raised its position in Linde by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 5,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,168,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Portfolio Design Labs LLC purchased a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,897,000. Cloverfields Capital Group LP bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $718,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 46.9% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,593,000 after purchasing an additional 15,393 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $477.36 on Tuesday. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $361.02 and a 1 year high of $479.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $229.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s 50-day moving average is $458.85 and its 200 day moving average is $449.28. 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 (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.57 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.13%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on LIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report 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 report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays boosted their target price on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup increased their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.