Power Corp of Canada Purchases Shares of 210,859 Linde plc (NYSE:LIN)

Power Corp of Canada purchased a new stake in Linde plc (NYSE:LIN – Get Rating) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 210,859 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,700,000. Linde accounts for 8.6% of Power Corp of Canada’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest holding.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. TradeLink Capital LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the first quarter valued at $2,523,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its stake in Linde by 36.4% in the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 1,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Linde by 25.4% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $957,000 after purchasing an additional 607 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. boosted its stake in Linde by 15.3% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,380 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $760,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the first quarter worth $6,682,000. 78.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 4,060 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.17, for a total value of $1,462,290.20. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,036,953.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on LIN shares. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Linde from $375.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Linde from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Linde from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Linde from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Linde from $355.00 to $385.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $370.67.

Linde Trading Down 3.4 %

NYSE:LIN opened at $330.93 on Thursday. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $262.47 and a 1-year high of $362.74. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $333.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $314.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $162.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.11, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.84.

Linde (NYSE:LIN – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The basic materials company reported $3.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.91 by $0.25. Linde had a return on equity of 14.95% and a net margin of 12.43%. The firm had revenue of $7.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Linde plc will post 13.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 14th will be paid a $1.275 dividend. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.17. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 13th. This represents a $5.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.73%.

Linde Profile

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Linde Plc is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It designs and builds equipment that produces industrial gases and offers customers a wide range of gas production and processing services such as olefin plants, natural gas plants, air separation plants, hydrogen and synthesis gas plants and other types of plants.