Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) Stock Holdings Lifted by Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd

Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) by 11.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,149,211 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 116,095 shares during the quarter. Linde accounts for about 4.8% of Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd owned approximately 0.24% of Linde worth $471,992,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. TradeLink Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $2,523,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its stake in Linde by 36.4% during the 1st quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 1,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $566,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Linde by 25.4% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $957,000 after purchasing an additional 607 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. grew its stake in Linde by 15.3% during the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 2,380 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $760,000 after purchasing an additional 316 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC purchased a new stake in Linde during the 1st quarter valued at about $6,682,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on LIN. UBS Group downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $482.00 to $510.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Linde from $395.00 to $455.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Linde from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Linde from $503.00 to $510.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $448.93.

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LIN traded up $7.44 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $464.70. The company had a trading volume of 1,570,311 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,690,232. Linde plc has a twelve month low of $350.60 and a twelve month 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. The stock has a market cap of $223.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $445.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $413.24.

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

Linde Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Linde

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