Burney Co. Buys 17,138 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Burney Co. boosted its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 2,480.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,829 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 17,138 shares during the quarter. Burney Co.'s holdings in Linde were worth $8,302,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Diversify Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Linde by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 999 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $450,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc increased its position in Linde by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 3,207 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,493,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Rockingstone Advisors LLC increased its position in Linde by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Rockingstone Advisors LLC now owns 8,340 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,883,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Linde by 20.2% during the 1st quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 149 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on LIN shares. Citigroup raised Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company 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 report on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group lifted their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. 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 assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $518.80.

Insider Activity at Linde

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 shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 22,639 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was 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 owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Linde Trading Up 0.3%

LIN stock traded up $1.40 during trading on Friday, reaching $472.89. 1,212,138 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,547,221. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $466.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $456.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $222.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.96. Linde PLC has a 1 year low of $408.65 and a 1 year high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.75 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.27%. 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.