Brookstone Capital Management Has $5.30 Million Stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Brookstone Capital Management increased its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 64.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 11,378 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 4,462 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management's holdings in Linde were worth $5,298,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. North Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its stake in Linde by 1,160.0% during the fourth quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 63 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Putney Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Linde in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in Linde during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC grew its stake in Linde by 34.9% during 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.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde 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 completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Linde Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded up $0.94 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $470.89. 813,302 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,967,025. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.94. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $462.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $451.89. The company has a market cap of $221.66 billion, a PE ratio of 34.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.75 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.57%.

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.