KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Has $76.35 Million Stake in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS trimmed its position in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 1.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 163,974 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 2,300 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS's holdings in Linde were worth $76,353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LIN. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its stake in 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 valued at $88,505,000 after purchasing an additional 1,320 shares during the last quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Linde by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 7,788 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,261,000 after purchasing an additional 332 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Linde by 300.3% during the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 26,150 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $10,948,000 after buying an additional 19,618 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its stake in shares of Linde by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 22,235 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $9,287,000 after buying an additional 4,162 shares during the period. Finally, Taurus Asset Management LLC grew its position in Linde by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 55,009 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $23,031,000 after buying an additional 484 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $456.42, for a total transaction of $3,314,065.62. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 8,151 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. The trade was a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the vice president owned 22,639 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on LIN. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada started 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. Citigroup raised shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Argus raised Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $518.80.

Linde Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Linde stock traded up $1.50 on Thursday, hitting $471.49. 1,371,541 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,150,841. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Linde PLC has a one year low of $408.65 and a one year high of $487.49. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $465.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $455.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $221.94 billion, a PE ratio of 34.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.96.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 18.95%. The company had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.24 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.75 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 16.54 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $1.50 per share. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 4th. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.