Park National Corp OH Acquires New Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Park National Corp OH bought a new stake in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 32,715 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,697,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 29.2% during the 4th quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 310 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $130,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co lifted its stake in Linde by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 5,306 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,221,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New Hampshire boosted its position in shares of Linde by 26.0% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New Hampshire now owns 194 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Linde by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 4,065 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,702,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. Finally, Kozak & Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Linde by 38.6% in the fourth quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. now owns 97 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Linde news, Director Paula Rosput Reynolds bought 100 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $441.34 per share, for a total transaction of $44,134.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 233 shares in the company, valued at approximately $102,832.22. The trade was a 75.19 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 2,218 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $434.35, for a total transaction of $963,388.30. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 25,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,260,958.10. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Linde Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ LIN opened at $414.95 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $442.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $453.78. The company has a market capitalization of $197.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 1 year low of $396.07 and a 1 year 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.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.39 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.16% and a net margin of 19.33%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.63 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 3rd were given a $1.39 dividend. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 3rd. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LIN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $520.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $477.00 to $507.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Linde from $510.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $490.75.

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.