McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC Purchases Shares of 1,273 Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 1,273 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $533,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in LIN. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 1.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,973,175 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,217,197,000 after buying an additional 154,792 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.4% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,449,218 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,513,551,000 after purchasing an additional 15,187 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Linde by 372.8% in 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 worth $1,567,958,000 after purchasing an additional 2,592,682 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Linde by 1.7% during 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 buying an additional 50,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its holdings in Linde by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,374,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,130,986,000 after buying an additional 56,775 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds purchased 100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $441.34 per share, with a total value of $44,134.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 233 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $102,832.22. This trade represents a 75.19 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total value of $963,388.30. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Linde Stock Performance

LIN stock opened at $436.00 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $436.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $452.82. Linde plc has a fifty-two week low of $396.07 and a fifty-two week high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $207.61 billion, a PE ratio of 33.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were paid a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.22%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on LIN. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $495.75.

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.