GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC Acquires 1,257 Shares of Linde PLC $LIN

GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 1,257 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $597,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Sanders Morris Harris LLC bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $847,000. Carderock Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at $7,498,000. Birch Hill Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,875,000. First Financial Bank Trust Division bought a new position in Linde during the third quarter worth $4,034,000. Finally, Hikari Power Ltd bought a new position in Linde during the second quarter worth $20,965,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on LIN. DZ Bank restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Berenberg Bank reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Linde from $560.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 30th. Barclays upped their price objective on Linde from $577.00 to $591.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Linde from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $553.05.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN stock opened at $524.74 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $485.35 and its 200 day moving average is $493.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $240.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.87, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.67. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $387.78 and a 12 month high of $548.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.52 by $0.07. Linde had a net margin of 19.34% and a return on equity of 20.32%. The business had revenue of $9.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.21 EPS. Linde’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 17.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be issued a $1.60 dividend. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.52%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 9,350 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $518.91, for a total value of $4,851,808.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,138 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,487,629.58. The trade was a 29.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Linde

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and distributes atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases. The company serves customers through packaged gases, bulk deliveries, on-site production and pipeline systems.

Linde’s products and services support a broad range of industries, including healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, chemicals, energy, refining, electronics and metals.