Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Acquired by Brentview Investment Management LLC

Key Points

• Brentview Investment Management LLC has increased its stake in Linde PLC by 6.1%, now owning a total of 12,725 shares valued at approximately $5.93 million, making Linde its 8th largest position.
• Company insiders have recently sold shares, including VP Sean Durbin, who sold 7,261 shares, resulting in a 47.11% decrease in his ownership.
• Linde announced a quarterly dividend of $1.50 per share, set to be paid on September 18th, with a current dividend yield of 1.29%.

Brentview Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 6.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 12,725 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 734 shares during the quarter. Linde comprises 3.2% of Brentview Investment Management LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Brentview Investment Management LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $5,925,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 211,395 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $88,505,000 after purchasing an additional 1,320 shares during the last quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC increased its position in Linde by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 7,788 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,261,000 after buying an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC increased its position in Linde by 300.3% during the 4th quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 26,150 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $10,948,000 after buying an additional 19,618 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment increased 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 valued at $9,287,000 after buying an additional 4,162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Taurus Asset Management LLC increased 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 valued at $23,031,000 after buying an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Linde

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 stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 22,639 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through 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 value of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on LIN. UBS Group boosted their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada began 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 upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $518.80.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN traded down $0.85 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $459.41. The company had a trading volume of 2,219,331 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,481,246. The stock has a market capitalization of $216.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.36, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.92. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $467.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $457.55.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. Linde's quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.85 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 43.57%.

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.