Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Bought by Allworth Financial LP

Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 22.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,784 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,976 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP's holdings in Linde were worth $4,848,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 211,395 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $88,505,000 after buying an additional 1,320 shares during the last quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 7,788 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,261,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 300.3% in the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 26,150 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $10,948,000 after purchasing an additional 19,618 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its position in Linde by 23.0% during the 4th quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 22,235 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $9,287,000 after acquiring an additional 4,162 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Taurus Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Linde by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 55,009 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $23,031,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares during the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $518.80.

Linde Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of Linde stock traded down $8.22 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $460.56. The stock had a trading volume of 1,245,176 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,969,763. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $463.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $453.36. The stock has a market cap of $216.80 billion, a PE ratio of 33.45, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.75 EPS. Linde's revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.30%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 43.57%.

Insider Activity

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.