Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) Shares Bought by James Investment Research Inc.

James Investment Research Inc. boosted its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 8.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,052 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 820 shares during the period. James Investment Research Inc.'s holdings in Linde were worth $5,146,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LIN. Welch & Forbes LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 102,275 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $47,623,000 after purchasing an additional 2,176 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Linde by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 27,333 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $12,727,000 after purchasing an additional 1,346 shares during the last quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC now owns 16,685 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $7,769,000 after purchasing an additional 804 shares during the last quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Linde by 322.5% in the 1st quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC now owns 376 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $175,000 after purchasing an additional 287 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Linde in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $220,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Linde Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LIN traded up $0.81 during trading on Friday, reaching $462.10. The company had a trading volume of 776,867 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,967,524. Linde PLC has a twelve month low of $408.65 and a twelve month high of $487.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $217.52 billion, a PE ratio of 33.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $464.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $453.75. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.75 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Dividend Announcement

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 was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.30%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Linde

In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total value of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total value 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. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

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.