Jones Financial Companies Lllp Acquires 22,202 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 31.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 93,441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 22,202 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in Linde were worth $39,121,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,973,175 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,217,197,000 after acquiring an additional 154,792 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 372.8% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,288,088 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,567,958,000 after purchasing an additional 2,592,682 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Linde by 1.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,015,882 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,438,154,000 after purchasing an additional 50,882 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its stake in Linde by 2.4% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,374,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,130,986,000 after purchasing an additional 56,775 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Linde by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $898,188,000 after purchasing an additional 46,843 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $467.05 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $440.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $454.96. Linde plc has a 52-week low of $410.69 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The company has a market cap of $222.39 billion, a PE ratio of 34.32, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a net margin of 19.89% and a return on equity of 18.71%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Linde plc will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Guillermo Bichara sold 4,385 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $460.73, for a total transaction of $2,020,301.05. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 22,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,493,586.48. The trade was a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total value of $963,388.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 25,926 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,260,958.10. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 16,285 shares of company stock valued at $7,423,986. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $501.82.

Linde 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.