Alta Advisers Ltd Boosts Stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Alta Advisers Ltd boosted its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 45.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,243 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 700 shares during the quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd's holdings in Linde were worth $1,044,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth $2,901,853,000. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth $2,128,233,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 58,312.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,590,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,834,631,000 after purchasing an additional 2,957,604 shares during the period. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth $468,360,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In related news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on LIN shares. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Linde in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target on the stock. Argus raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $515.90.

Linde Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of LIN opened at $469.18 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $220.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.97. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $459.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $450.01. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued 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 return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.75 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

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.

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