Hancock Whitney Corp Acquires 277 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Hancock Whitney Corp lifted its holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,457 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 277 shares during the quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp’s holdings in Linde were worth $1,172,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of LIN. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the 2nd quarter worth $33,000. Kozak & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Linde during the 3rd quarter worth about $34,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 2nd quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the third quarter valued at about $43,000. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP John Panikar sold 10,025 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $462.75, for a total transaction of $4,639,068.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 17,584 shares in the company, valued at $8,136,996. This represents a 36.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on LIN shares. Bank of America lifted their target price on Linde from $495.00 to $516.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Linde from $460.00 to $510.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Linde from $430.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $490.75.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of Linde stock opened at $456.60 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $396.07 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $467.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $454.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.94.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.89 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. Linde had a net margin of 19.33% and a return on equity of 18.16%. Linde’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.63 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.48 EPS for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.22%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Linde Company Profile

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.