3Chopt Investment Partners LLC Invests $205,000 in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

3Chopt Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 468 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Linde by 1.3% during 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. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in Linde by 46.9% during 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 buying an additional 15,393 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Linde in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,603,000. Prudential PLC grew its stake 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 worth $11,145,000 after acquiring an additional 2,409 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Linde by 40.7% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 8,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,750,000 after acquiring an additional 2,337 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of LIN stock opened at $475.02 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $228.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.94. 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 business’s 50 day moving average is $462.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $449.63. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $361.02 and a twelve month high of $483.36.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.30 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 17.92%. Linde’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.57 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.17%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,136,996. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group decreased their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 price objective on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Six equities research 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 has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.