Jennison Associates LLC Purchases 10,472 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 6.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 172,544 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 10,472 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC's holdings in Linde were worth $80,343,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. North Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Linde in the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Linde by 34.9% in the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 85 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Linde in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on LIN shares. UBS Group increased 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 report on Thursday, April 3rd. Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. 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 on the stock. Finally, Argus upgraded Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $518.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of Linde stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The stock was 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 directly owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $3,314,065.62. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Linde Stock Performance

Shares of LIN traded up $3.72 on Friday, reaching $465.01. 2,267,610 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,977,294. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market cap of $218.89 billion, a PE ratio of 33.77, a PEG ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.96. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $464.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $454.07. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 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 company had revenue of $8.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.75 earnings per share. Linde's revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 4th were given a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. 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.