Harbour Investments Inc. Grows Stock Position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Harbour Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,736 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the quarter. Harbour Investments Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $828,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Kozak & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde in the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in Linde during the third quarter worth $43,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the second quarter worth $42,000. Finally, Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. grew its stake in shares of Linde by 133.3% in the second quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 98 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $449.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $213.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.10, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.96. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $396.07 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $470.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $452.61.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.63 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on LIN. Mizuho increased their target price on Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $490.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the vice president now owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 36.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.