Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Purchased by Commonwealth Equity Services LLC

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 88,680 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 3,550 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $36,422,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of LIN. Winder Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Linde during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,892,774,000. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth $168,636,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 33,201.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 411,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $169,189,000 after purchasing an additional 410,705 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 17.8% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,592,343 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $973,865,000 after purchasing an additional 391,153 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Linde by 53.1% during the third quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 1,033,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $384,681,000 after purchasing an additional 358,492 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total transaction of $3,837,704.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 56,398 shares in the company, valued at $26,058,131.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,809,695.89. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sanjiv Lamba sold 8,306 shares of Linde stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $462.04, for a total value of $3,837,704.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 56,398 shares in the company, valued at $26,058,131.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 78,248 shares of company stock worth $35,811,988 over the last quarter. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $475.00 to $500.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. UBS Group cut Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $482.00 to $510.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on Linde from $510.00 to $512.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $460.15.

Linde Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of LIN opened at $423.60 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $455.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $422.69. The stock has a market cap of $204.00 billion, a PE ratio of 32.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 12 month low of $350.60 and a 12 month high of $477.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported $3.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.68 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.38 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 19.26%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.42 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 15.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.39 per share. This represents a $5.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 4th. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.13%.

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.