Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co. Invests $205,000 in Linde plc (NYSE:LIN)

Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co. acquired a new stake in Linde plc (NYSE:LIN) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 539 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Resources Investment Advisors LLC. grew its stake in Linde by 191.1% in the first quarter. Resources Investment Advisors LLC. now owns 5,027 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,787,000 after acquiring an additional 3,300 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 17.5% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $881,000 after purchasing an additional 369 shares in the last quarter. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 3.5% in the first quarter. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC now owns 62,128 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $22,083,000 after purchasing an additional 2,129 shares in the last quarter. Harding Loevner LP lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 193.7% in the first quarter. Harding Loevner LP now owns 981,005 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $348,688,000 after purchasing an additional 646,949 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ronald Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.3% in the first quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,380 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,103,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Linde from $400.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, July 28th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Linde from $400.00 to $418.00 in a report on Monday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $420.00 target price on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. Argus boosted their target price on Linde from $440.00 to $463.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Linde from $420.00 to $444.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $404.41.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 12,484 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $386.53, for a total value of $4,825,440.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 27,161 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,498,541.33. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 12,484 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $386.53, for a total value of $4,825,440.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 27,161 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,498,541.33. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 39,695 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $391.62, for a total value of $15,545,355.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 369,611 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $144,747,059.82. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE LIN traded up $0.30 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $388.29. The company had a trading volume of 293,737 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,829,117. The company has a market capitalization of $189.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.85. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $262.47 and a 1 year high of $393.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $382.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $368.38.

Linde (NYSE:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The basic materials company reported $3.57 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.47 by $0.10. Linde had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 17.20%. The business had revenue of $8.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.10 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 14.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 5th will be given a dividend of $1.275 per share. This represents a $5.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 1st. Linde’s payout ratio is 44.50%.

Linde Company Profile

Linde plc operates as an industrial gas company in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia 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.