OLD National Bancorp IN Grows Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

OLD National Bancorp IN grew its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,536 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. OLD National Bancorp IN’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,452,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,237 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $460,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Arkadios Wealth Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at about $254,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 628 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $238,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Ziegler Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at about $219,000. Finally, Capital Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at about $233,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $445.06 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $455.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $419.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $350.60 and a 1-year high of $477.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $214.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.32, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.93.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.49 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. Linde’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.16 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This is a boost from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

Insider Activity at Linde

In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total value of $124,383.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 in the last ninety days. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup lowered shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $475.00 to $500.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Linde from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $510.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Linde from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $456.79.

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.