Linde PLC $LIN Shares Bought by National Pension Service

National Pension Service increased its holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 967,516 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,624 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.21% of Linde worth $459,570,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Norges Bank bought a new position in Linde during the 2nd quarter valued at $3,098,772,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Linde by 82.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,683,248 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $799,543,000 after purchasing an additional 760,954 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its position in shares of Linde by 18.5% during the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 2,972,515 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,394,198,000 after purchasing an additional 463,977 shares during the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. acquired a new position in Linde in the second quarter worth about $187,359,000. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC grew its stake in Linde by 48.7% in the second quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 1,131,132 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $530,617,000 after purchasing an additional 370,261 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $456.97 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $425.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $447.91. Linde PLC has a 52 week low of $387.78 and a 52 week high of $486.38. The stock has a market cap of $213.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $4.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.18 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 21.17%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.94 EPS. Analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on LIN shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $516.00 target price on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, November 3rd. BMO Capital Markets set a $501.00 price objective on Linde in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, December 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $501.75.

Linde Profile

Linde (NASDAQ: LIN) is a multinational industrial gases and engineering company that supplies gases, related technologies and services to a wide range of industries. The company traces its current form to the 2018 combination of Germany’s Linde AG and U.S.-based Praxair, creating one of the largest global providers of industrial, specialty and medical gases. Linde’s business model centers on production, processing and distribution of gases as well as the design and construction of the plants and equipment needed to produce them.

Core products and services include atmospheric and process gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon; hydrogen and helium; carbon dioxide; and a portfolio of higher‑value specialty and electronic gases.