CenterBook Partners LP Buys 44,287 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

CenterBook Partners LP grew its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 1,192.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 48,001 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 44,287 shares during the period. Linde accounts for 1.4% of CenterBook Partners LP's holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest position. CenterBook Partners LP's holdings in Linde were worth $22,351,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Linde during the fourth quarter valued at $2,901,853,000. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $2,128,233,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 58,312.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,415,935 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,590,596,000 after buying an additional 3,410,087 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 34.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,547,765 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $4,834,631,000 after buying an additional 2,957,604 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in Linde by 172.4% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,407,637 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,121,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,523,702 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Linde

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were 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 of the company's stock, valued at $10,346,928.56. This trade represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% 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 corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $518.80.

Linde Stock Performance

Linde stock traded down $0.89 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $459.67. 1,437,982 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,970,500. The stock has a market cap of $216.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.94. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The firm's 50 day moving average is $464.04 and its 200 day moving average is $453.41.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.92 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. Linde's quarterly revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.75 EPS. Analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were issued a $1.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Linde's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.