B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Grows Position in Linde plc (NYSE:LIN)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde plc (NYSE:LIN – Get Rating) by 11.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,613 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 764 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Linde were worth $2,055,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Linde by 3.5% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,653,204 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,938,416,000 after buying an additional 689,308 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 9.6% during the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,135,152 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,487,217,000 after buying an additional 1,061,754 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Linde by 6.0% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,587,362 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,315,068,000 after buying an additional 488,655 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Linde by 16.1% during the second quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,078,119 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,460,112,000 after buying an additional 703,724 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 12.6% during the third quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 4,273,245 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,152,024,000 after buying an additional 479,117 shares during the period. 78.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 4,060 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.17, for a total transaction of $1,462,290.20. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,036,953.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN opened at $330.49 on Friday. 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 cap of $162.65 billion, a PE ratio of 40.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $334.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $315.30. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $262.47 and a 12-month high of $362.74.

Linde (NYSE:LIN – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The basic materials company reported $3.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.77 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Linde plc will post 13.37 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 28th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $1.275 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 13th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.17. This represents a $5.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 61.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Linde from $340.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Linde from $402.00 to $418.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Linde from $355.00 to $385.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 8th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Linde from $355.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Linde from $370.00 to $378.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $370.67.

Linde Company 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.