City National Bank of Florida MSD Has $512,000 Stock Holdings in Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN)

City National Bank of Florida MSD grew its stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN - Free Report) by 113.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,099 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 583 shares during the quarter. City National Bank of Florida MSD's holdings in Linde were worth $512,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in shares of Linde during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,752,000. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $325,000 after buying an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its position in shares of Linde by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 68,460 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $28,662,000 after buying an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 80.4% during the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 2,253 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $943,000 after buying an additional 1,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Linde by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 242,183 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $101,395,000 after buying an additional 24,692 shares in the last quarter. 82.80% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Linde Stock Up 0.3%

NASDAQ LIN traded up $1.40 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $472.89. 1,212,138 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,547,221. Linde PLC has a 1-year low of $408.65 and a 1-year high of $487.49. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $466.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $456.02. 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 company has a market cap of $222.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.96.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The basic materials company reported $3.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.92 by $0.03. Linde had a return on equity of 18.95% and a net margin of 20.02%. The business had revenue of $8.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.24 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.75 EPS. The business's revenue was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. 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 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 4th. This represents a $6.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. Linde's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Linde news, VP David P. Strauss sold 1,987 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 22,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,346,928.56. The trade was a 8.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Sean Durbin sold 7,261 shares of the business'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 transaction, the vice president owned 8,151 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,720,279.42. This trade represents a 47.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.