Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS Sells 6,837 Shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lessened its position in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 14.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 41,195 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 6,837 shares during the quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS's holdings in Linde were worth $19,182,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Linde during the 4th quarter worth about $2,901,853,000. Freemont Capital Pte Ltd acquired a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $2,128,233,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 3,410,087 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 2,957,604 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Linde in the fourth quarter worth about $468,360,000. Institutional investors own 82.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Linde in a research report on Friday, June 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $576.00 price target for the company. Argus raised shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Linde from $485.00 to $504.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Linde to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Linde from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $500.00 to $535.00 in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Two investment 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Linde currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $518.80.

Insider Activity at Linde

In other Linde news, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,720,279.42. This represents a 47.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 22,639 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Linde Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of LIN traded down $1.09 on Wednesday, reaching $459.47. 679,726 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,170,166. 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 capitalization of $216.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $464.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $453.41. Linde PLC has a 12 month low of $408.65 and a 12 month high of $487.49.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last posted 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. The business 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 revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.75 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Linde PLC will post 16.54 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a $1.50 dividend. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. Linde's payout ratio is presently 43.57%.

Linde Company Profile

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.