Atomi Financial Group Inc. Increases Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Atomi Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 16.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,815 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 406 shares during the quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,343,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew 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 during the period. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of 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 worth $20,593,000 after acquiring an additional 15,393 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC boosted its stake 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 worth $3,750,000 after acquiring an additional 2,337 shares during the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 26.4% in the fourth quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 25,952 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,659,000 after acquiring an additional 5,417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Choate Investment Advisors boosted its stake in shares of Linde by 23.6% in the first quarter. Choate Investment Advisors now owns 18,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $8,366,000 after acquiring an additional 3,437 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on LIN shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Linde from $490.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $477.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $484.18.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $469.44 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $464.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $449.71. 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. The company has a market cap of $225.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.06. Linde had a return on equity of 17.92% and a net margin of 19.49%. The company had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.57 EPS. Linde’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

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.