Ballentine Partners LLC Raises Stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Ballentine Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 8.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,224 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 560 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $3,364,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. North Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in Linde during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 1,160.0% in the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 63 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Linde in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Linde by 34.9% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Linde Price Performance

LIN opened at $468.81 on Friday. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $463.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $452.65. 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 PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The firm has a market cap of $220.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.05, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.96.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) 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 earned $3.75 EPS. Linde's revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is currently 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% 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 company 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.

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