Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. Grows Stock Position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Key Points

• Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. has significantly increased its stake in Linde PLC by 208.9%, owning 1,628 shares valued at $758,000 as of the latest SEC filing.
• Linde reported $4.09 EPS for its recent quarter, beating expectations, with revenue of $8.50 billion and a net margin of 20.20%.
• The company declared a $1.50 quarterly dividend to be paid on September 18th, representing a 1.3% yield with a payout ratio of 42.67%.

Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. grew its stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 208.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,628 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,101 shares during the quarter. Keystone Investors PTE Ltd.'s holdings in Linde were worth $758,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of LIN. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its position in shares of Linde by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 211,395 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $88,505,000 after purchasing an additional 1,320 shares during the last quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 7,788 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $3,261,000 after acquiring an additional 332 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 300.3% during the 4th quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 26,150 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $10,948,000 after acquiring an additional 19,618 shares during the period. Taurus Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 55,009 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $23,031,000 after acquiring an additional 484 shares during the period. Finally, Sterling Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Linde by 770.8% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 36,052 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $15,094,000 after acquiring an additional 31,912 shares during the period. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Linde Stock Up 0.6%

LIN stock traded up $2.99 during trading on Friday, hitting $472.42. 939,239 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,504,921. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $467.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $458.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.60, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.92. Linde PLC has a 52-week low of $408.65 and a 52-week high of $487.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $4.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.03 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $8.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.35 billion. Linde had a return on equity of 19.09% and a net margin of 20.20%. The firm's revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.85 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Linde's payout ratio is presently 42.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 stock was sold at an average price of $457.04, for a total transaction of $908,138.48. Following 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Stephen F. Angel sold 50,309 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $473.38, for a total value of $23,815,274.42. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 480,543 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $227,479,445.34. This represents a 9.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 59,557 shares of company stock worth $28,037,479 over the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on Linde in a report on Friday, June 13th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 target price for the company. UBS Group raised their target price on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Linde from $470.00 to $475.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $519.63.

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.