FIL Ltd Sells 986 Shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

FIL Ltd cut its position in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 0.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,178,434 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 986 shares during the quarter. FIL Ltd’s holdings in Linde were worth $493,359,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Linde by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,003,925 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,598,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,750 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,901,853,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Linde by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,818,608 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,598,737,000 after buying an additional 265,455 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Linde by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,105,290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,300,092,000 after buying an additional 89,408 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in Linde by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,145,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $898,188,000 after buying an additional 46,843 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In other news, Director Robert L. Wood sold 2,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.26, for a total transaction of $1,323,154.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,393,571.38. The trade was a 17.15 % 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 2,477 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total value of $1,163,545.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $610,662. This represents a 65.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,159 shares of company stock valued at $5,603,843. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LIN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. TD Cowen raised shares of Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Linde from $490.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ LIN opened at $425.86 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $201.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.29, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.94. Linde plc has a 1-year low of $410.69 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $457.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $453.54.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th were given a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. Linde’s payout ratio is 44.09%.

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.