Perigon Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde plc (NYSE:LIN – Get Rating) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,047 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $282,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 9.6% during the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,135,152 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,487,217,000 after purchasing an additional 1,061,754 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Linde by 16.1% during the 2nd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,078,119 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,460,112,000 after purchasing an additional 703,724 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Linde by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,653,204 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $5,938,416,000 after purchasing an additional 689,308 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Linde by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,587,362 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,315,068,000 after purchasing an additional 488,655 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Linde by 12.6% during the 3rd quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 4,273,245 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,152,024,000 after purchasing an additional 479,117 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Linde from $370.00 to $378.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Linde from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, December 15th. HSBC lifted their target price on Linde from $375.00 to $380.00 in a report on Friday, February 24th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Linde from $375.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Linde from $355.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $370.67.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock opened at $330.49 on Friday. Linde plc has a 12-month low of $262.47 and a 12-month high of $362.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The business's 50-day moving average price is $334.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $315.51. The stock has a market cap of $162.65 billion, a PE ratio of 40.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.84.

Linde (NYSE:LIN – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The basic materials company reported $3.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.91 by $0.25. Linde had a return on equity of 14.95% and a net margin of 12.43%. The firm had revenue of $7.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Linde plc will post 13.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 14th will be given a $1.275 dividend. This represents a $5.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 13th. This is a boost from Linde's previous quarterly dividend of $1.17. Linde's payout ratio is currently 61.82%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 4,060 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.17, for a total transaction of $1,462,290.20. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $3,036,953.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

About Linde

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Linde Plc is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It designs and builds equipment that produces industrial gases and offers customers a wide range of gas production and processing services such as olefin plants, natural gas plants, air separation plants, hydrogen and synthesis gas plants and other types of plants.

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