Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 151,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,163 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Linde were worth $62,232,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its position in Linde by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 19,984,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,103,185,000 after purchasing an additional 372,780 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in Linde by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,919,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,182,870,000 after purchasing an additional 354,506 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position 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 period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Linde during the 4th quarter valued at $2,409,138,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its position in Linde by 7.9% during the 2nd quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,508,547 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,480,277,000 after purchasing an additional 479,188 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on LIN. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. UBS Group downgraded shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Linde from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $429.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $470.00 to $480.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $448.93.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.39, for a total transaction of $2,466,417.03. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,809,695.89. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Oliver Pfann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.61, for a total transaction of $124,383.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were 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 approximately $3,809,695.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 78,248 shares of company stock valued at $35,811,988 in the last quarter. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Linde Stock Up 1.6 %

Linde stock traded up $7.44 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $464.70. The stock had a trading volume of 1,570,311 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,690,232. The company has a market capitalization of $223.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.88, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $445.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $413.24. Linde plc has a one year low of $350.60 and a one year high of $477.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.49 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.04 billion. Linde had a net margin of 18.87% and a return on equity of 17.06%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.16 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Linde plc will post 15.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $1.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $5.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.20%. This is a positive change from Linde’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Linde’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.13%.

Linde Profile

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.