Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. Makes New $788,000 Investment in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. purchased a new stake in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 1,881 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $788,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter valued at about $252,000. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its stake in Linde by 2.4% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 56,775 shares during the period. Portside Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 7.1% during the third quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 789 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $376,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the third quarter worth approximately $807,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of Linde in the 3rd quarter worth $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LIN. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Cowen raised Linde from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $480.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on 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 and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Linde has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $501.82.

Linde Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN opened at $468.77 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $444.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $455.29. 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 company has a market capitalization of $221.69 billion, a PE ratio of 34.44, a price-to-earnings-growth 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.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.93 by $0.04. Linde had a return on equity of 18.71% and a net margin of 19.89%. Analysts forecast that Linde plc will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This is an increase from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.39. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. Linde’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.09%.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other news, VP Juergen Nowicki sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $459.62, for a total transaction of $3,117,142.84. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 14,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,786,289.30. This trade represents a 31.48 % decrease 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 2,477 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $469.74, for a total value of $1,163,545.98. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 1,300 shares in the company, valued at $610,662. The trade was a 65.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,377 shares of company stock valued at $6,567,231 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.