Banque Pictet & Cie SA Has $46.49 Million Stock Position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Banque Pictet & Cie SA lowered its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 7.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 99,833 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 7,789 shares during the quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA's holdings in Linde were worth $46,486,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Linde by 34.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,834,631,000 after purchasing an additional 2,957,604 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,003,925 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,598,551,000 after buying an additional 30,750 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Linde by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,214,290 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,857,741,000 after buying an additional 554,480 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $2,901,853,000. Finally, Freemont Capital Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,128,233,000. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, 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 directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the vice president owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Price Performance

NASDAQ:LIN traded down $1.53 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $468.81. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,326,438 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,973,086. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $463.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $452.35. The company has a market capitalization of $220.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.05, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.96.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.75 EPS. The firm's revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued 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 yield of 1.28%. Linde's payout ratio is 43.57%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Linde Company 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.